Most often, he refrained from ascending to the citadel on mawkib nights and for the Friday prayer with the sultan, making various excuses for not doing so, some of which acceptable and some of which not. Sometimes, the excuse he made for not ascending to the citadel was that he was heading for the spring grazing grounds; sometimes, it was something else.
However, he did ascend on mawkib days, in the early morning, wearing the qumāsh al-mawkib, and immediately descending afterwards.