His father was Lin Lü (林閭). Around 1376 the 30-year-old Lin Nu visited Ormuz in Persia, converted to Islam, and married a Semu girl (“娶色目女”) (either a Persian or an Arab girl) and brought her back to Quanzhou in Fujian.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] This was recorded in the Lin and Li genealogy《林李宗谱》.