Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Eighty-first Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah bin Fazil continued to the Caliph:—When I saw them in this plight, it was grievous to me and I mourned for them and my reason fled my head. So I rose and embraced them and wept over their condition: then I put on one of them the pelisse of sable and on the other the fur coat of meniver and, carrying them to the Hammam, sent thither for each of them a suit of apparel such as befitted a merchant worth a thousand.[494] When they had washed and donned each his suit, I carried them to my house where, seeing them well nigh famished, I set a tray of food before them and ate with them, caressing them and comforting them. (Then he again turned to the two dogs and said to them, “Was this so, O my brothers?”; and they bent their heads and lowered their eyes.) So Abdullah continued:—When they had eaten, O Vicar of Allah, quoth I to them, “What hath befallen you and where are your goods?”; and quoth they, “We fared up the river,[495] till we came to a city called Cufa, where we sold for ten dinars the piece of stuff that had cost half a ducat and that which cost us a ducat for twenty. So we profited greatly and bought Persian stuffs at the rate of ten sequins per piece of silk worth forty in Bassorah. Thence we removed to a city called Al-Karkh[496] where we sold and bought and made gain galore and amassed of wealth great store.” And they went on to set forth to me the places and the profits. So I said to them, “Since ye had such good luck and lot, how cometh it that I see you return naked?” They sighed and answered, “O our brother, some one must have evileyed us, and in travel there is no trusting. When we had gotten together these monies and goods, we freighted a ship therewith and set sail, intending for Bassorah. We fared on three days and on the fourth day we saw the sea rise and fall and roar and foam and swell and dash, whilst the waves clashed together with a crash, striking out sparks like fire[497] in the darks. The winds blew contrary for us and our craft struck upon the point of a bill-projected rock, where it brake up and plunged us into the river, and all we had with us was lost in the waters. We abode struggling on the surface a day and a night, till Allah sent us another ship, whose crew picked us up and we begged our way from town to town, suffering mighty sore hardships and selling our body-clothes piecemeal, to buy us food, till we drew near Bassorah; nor did we make the city till we had drained the draught of a thousand miseries. But, had we come safely off with that which was by us, we had brought back riches that might be evened with those of the King: but this was fore ordained to us of Allah.” I said, “O my brothers, let not your hearts be grieved, for wealth is the ransom of bodies and safety is property. Since Allah hath written you of the saved, this is the end of desire, for want and wealth are but as it were illusions of dreams and God-gifted is he who said:—