When he awoke from his stupor it was dark, and he called loudly for lights; but there was no answer. Where were the slave girls? Angrily he summoned one or two by name. Then it was that his mother, hearing him calling out in this way, came to his couch and asked what ailed him. Had he gone mad? "Darest thou address the Prince of the Faithful so?" he replied. "Who art thou, miserable old woman?" "Canst thou not recognise thy mother?" "Cease, woman! I am the Prince of the Faithful, the lord of the earth and all its treasures; all people are my slaves and--" "Silence!" she broke in, "if thou valuest thy life!" And, guessing that some spell had been laid upon him, she began to mutter charms to drive away the evil spirits. Then, seeking to divert his mind, she told him the good news about the Imam and the Sheiks; how they had been punished, and how she herself had received a hundred gold pieces with the Khalifeh's blessing. When he heard this he started up, shouting: "It was I who gave orders that these things should be done; I, the Khalifeh, the Prince of the Faithful." And thereupon he took a stick and beat his mother till the neighbours flocked in and demanded to know the cause of the trouble. "Wretched old woman!" he was shouting; "am I not the Prince of the Faithful?"
Hearing this the neighbours said among themselves, "He is mad!" And without more ado they fell upon him, and bound him, and took him to the madhouse. There he was beaten every day and treated in such a manner that he feared indeed to lose his reason. After many days of this harsh treatment his mother came to him and asked him what he was doing in such a distressful plight if, indeed, he was the Prince of the Faithful. And he was fain to admit that he had been mistaken--nay, worse still; he had been made the sport of evil spirits and the subject of enchantment. So he repented, and prayed to Allah for forgiveness; and they released him from the madhouse.
Abu-l-Hasan's return to his old life brought with it a desire for a boon companion, and this urged his restless feet through the ways of the city again, searching for one as of old. Now Er-Rashid had kept a watchful eye on Abu-l-Hasan's movements, and thus it happened that one evening the Khalifeh, in the garb of a merchant, stood before him. "Greeting to thee, O master of devils!" cried Abu-l-Hasan, recognising him as soon as he saw him. "Hast thou then suffered at my hands?" asked Er-Rashid. "Suffered! vilest of devil drivers!" returned Abu-l-Hasan with bitter anger. Then, after recounting the many things he had endured, he asked, "Is this the way thou returnest my hospitality, to give thy devils control over me, to make sport of my sufferings? Begone! I wish to see thy face no more."