He continued his travels and fell in love with Marwa bint Ahmad on his trip back to Spain, while he was in Cairo. They fled together to Europe and he wrote songs about his love for her. When they arrived in Europe he asked for her hand in marriage, but was sent by the Caliph to Africa, promising he would return soon after he accomplished his mission. She gave him a silver medallion with a poem by Mansour al-Hallaj. She also gave him a piece of wood that she carved with his name, and he never parted with this piece of wood, wherever he traveled. The medallion and the carving were found in his tomb in 1937 and kept at the Kabul Museum, but were stolen during the war in 2002.
