Then they began to circle each round the other, circling more and more
sharply till beyond the stretch of sight, and Shibli Bagarag said to
Feshnavat, 'Am I not awake, O Feshnavat? I will know where is Karaz ere I
seek to operate on Shagpat, for it is well spoken of the poet:
“Obstructions first remove
Ere thou thy cunning prove”;
and I will encounter this Karaz that was our Ass, ere I try the great
shave.'
Then said he, turning quickly, 'Yonder is the light from Aklis striking
on the city, and I mark Shagpat, even he, illumined by it, singled out,
where he sitteth on the roof of the palace by the market-place.'
So they looked, and it was as he had spoken, that Shagpat was singled out
in the midst of the city by the wondrous beams of the eye of Aklis, and
made prominent in effulgence.
Said Abarak, climbing to the level of observation, 'He hath a redness
like the inside of a halved pomegranate.'
Feshnavat stroked his chin, exclaiming, 'He may be likened to a mountain
goat in the midst of a forest roaring with conflagration.'
Said Shibli Bagarag, 'Now is he the red-maned lion, the bristling boar,
the uncombed buffalo, the plumaged cock, but soon will he be like nothing
else save the wrinkled kernel of a shaggy fruit. Lo, now, the Sword! it
leapeth to be at him, and 'twill be as the keen icicle of winter to that
perishing foliage, that doomed crop! So doth the destined minute destroy
with a flash the hoarded arrogance of ages; and the destined hand doeth
what creation failed to perform; and 'tis by order, destiny, and
preordainment, that the works of this world come to pass. This know I,
and I witness thereto that am of a surety ordained to the Shaving of
Shagpat!'
Then he stood apart and gazed from Shagpat to the city that now began to
move with the morning; elephants and coursers saddled by the gates of the
King's palace were visible, and camels blocking the narrow streets, and
the markets bustling. Surely, though the sun illumined that city, it was
as a darkness behind Shagpat singled by the beams of Aklis.