Jemlikha then said to the shepherd, "Give me thy habit; I will go myself to the city and fetch what is necessary for us, and endeavour to find out what we cannot now comprehend."
The shepherd gave him his habit, and took his in return. Jemlikha, with much labour, made himself a passage through the ruins of this thick wall, followed the road to the city, and remarked over the gate a standard, upon which was written, "There is no other god but the true God."
He was astonished to find that one night had produced so great a change. "Is not this a vision?" said he. "Do I awake, or do I feel the illusions of a dream?"
Whilst he made these embarrassing reflections, he saw a man come out of the castle, whom he approached, and asked him if this city was not called Ephesus. He told him that was its name.
"What is the name of him who governs it?" resumed Jemlikha immediately.
"It belongs to Encouch: he is the King of it, and has his residence in it," replied the man.
Jemlikha, still more astonished, pursued his questions.
"What do these words signify," cried he, "which are upon the standard?"
He satisfied his curiosity by telling him that they represented the holy name of God.
"But I apprehend," interrupted Jemlikha, with eagerness, "that Dakianos is the King of this city, and that he makes himself be worshipped here as a god."
"I have never heard of any King so named," returned the inhabitant of the city.
"What an uncommon sleep I am in!" cried Jemlikha. "Awaken me, I conjure you," said he to him.
The man, surprised in his turn, could not forbear saying to him, "What! you have asked me reasonable and sensible questions, you have understood my answers, and can you imagine that you are asleep?"
Jemlikha, ashamed of speaking to him so inadvertently, quitted him, saying within himself, "Most high Allah, have you deprived me of reason?"
With this confusion of ideas, he entered into the city, which he could not in the least recollect: the houses, the temples, the seraglios, appeared under a new form to him. At length he stopped before the door of a baker, where he chose out several loaves, and presented his money for them: the baker examined it, and looking upon Jemlikha with much attention, he was alarmed at it, and said to him,