continued:—So when Solomon the prophet (with whom be peace!) lighted
down with his host on the island he sent to our King, saying, “Behold, I
am come: defend thy life against that which is fallen upon thee, or else
make thy submission to me and confess my apostleship and give me thy
daughter to lawful wife and break thine idol and worship the one God,
the alone Worshipful; and testify, thou and thine, and say, There is no
God but _the_ God, and Solomon is the Apostle of Allah![124] This if
thou do, thou shalt have pardon and peace; but if not, it will avail
thee nothing to fortify thyself in this island, for Allah (extolled and
exalted be He!) hath bidden the Wind obey me; so I will bid it bear me
to thee on my carpet and make thee a warning and an example to deter
others.” But the King made answer to his messenger, saying, “It may not
on any wise be as he requireth of me; so tell him I come forth to him.”
With this reply the messenger returned to Solomon, who thereupon
gathered together all the Jinn that were under his hand, to the number
of a thousand thousand, and added to them other than they of Marids and
Satans from the islands of the sea and the tops of the mountains and,
drawing them up on parade, opened his armouries and distributed to them
arms and armour. Then the Prophet drew out his host in battle array,
dividing the beasts into two bodies, one on the right wing of the men
and the other on the left, and bidding them tear the enemies’ horses in
sunder. Furthermore, he ordered the birds which were in the island to
hover over their heads and, whenas the assault should be made, that they
should swoop down and tear out the foe’s eyes with their beaks and
buffet their faces with their wings; and they answered, saying, “We hear
and we obey Allah and thee, O Prophet of Allah!” Then Solomon seated
himself on a throne of alabaster, studded with precious stones and
plated with red gold; and, commanding the wind to bear him aloft, set
his Wazir Asaf bin Barkhiya[125] and the kings of mankind on his right
and his Wazir Al-Dimiryat and the kings of the Jinn on his left,
arraying the beasts and vipers and serpents in the van. Thereupon they
all set on us together, and we gave them battle two days over a vast
plain; but, on the third day, disaster befel us, and the judgment of
Allah the Most High was executed upon us. Now the first to charge upon
them were I and my troops, and I said to my companions, “Abide in your
places, whilst I sally forth to them and provoke Al-Dimiryat to combat
singular.” And behold, he came forth to the duello as he were a vast
mountain, with his fires flaming and his smoke spireing, and shot at me
a falling star of fire; but I swerved from it and it missed me. Then I
cast at him in my turn, a flame of fire, and it smote him; but his
shaft[126] overcame my fire and he cried out at me so terrible a cry
that meseemed the skies were fallen flat upon me, and the mountains
trembled at his voice. Then he commanded his hosts to charge;
accordingly they rushed on us and we rushed on them, each crying out
upon other, and battle reared its crest rising in volumes and smoke
ascending in columns and hearts well nigh cleaving. The birds and the
flying Jinn fought in the air and the beasts and men and the foot-faring
Jann in the dust and I fought with Al-Dimiryat, till I was aweary and he
not less so. At last, I grew weak and turned to flee from him, whereupon
my companions and tribesmen likewise took to flight and my hosts were
put to the rout, and Solomon cried out, saying, “Take yonder furious
tyrant, the accursed, the infamous!” Then man fell upon man and Jinn
upon Jinn and the armies of the Prophet charged down upon us, with the
wild beasts and lions on their right hand and on their left, rending our
horses and tearing our men; whilst the birds hovered overhead in air
pecking out our eyes with their claws and beaks and beating our faces
with their wings, and the serpents struck us with their fangs, till the
most of our folk lay prone upon the face of the earth, like the trunks
of date-trees. Thus defeat befel our King and we became a spoil unto
Solomon. As to me, I fled from before Al-Dimiryat; but he followed me
three months’ journey, till I fell down for weariness and he overtook
me, and pouncing upon me, made me prisoner. Quoth I, “By the virtue of
Him who hath exalted thee and abased me, spare me and bring me into the
presence of Solomon, on whom be peace!” So he carried me before Solomon,
who received me after the foulest fashion and bade bring this pillar and
hollow it out. Then he set me herein and chained me and sealed me with
his signet-ring, and Al-Dimiryat bore me to this place wherein thou
seest me. Moreover, he charged a great angel to guard me, and this
pillar is my prison until Judgment-day.——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Jinni who
was prisoned in the pillar had told them his tale, from first to last,
the folk marvelled at his story and at the frightfulness of his favour,
and the Emir Musa said, “There is no God but _the_ God! Soothly was
Solomon gifted with a mighty dominion.” Then said the Shaykh Abd
al-Samad to the Jinni, “Ho there! I would fain ask thee of a thing,
whereof do thou inform us.” “Ask what thou wilt,” answered the Ifrit
Dahish and the Shaykh said, “Are there hereabouts any of the Ifrits
imprisoned in bottles of brass from the time of Solomon (on whom be
peace!)?” “Yes,” replied the Jinni; “there be such in the sea of
Al-Karkar[127] on the shores whereof dwell a people of the lineage of
Noah (on whom be peace!); for their country was not reached by the
Deluge and they are cut off there from the other sons of Adam.” Quoth
Abd al-Samad, “And which is the way to the City of Brass and the place
wherein are the cucurbites of Solomon, and what distance lieth between
us and it?” Quoth the Ifrit, “It is near at hand,” and directed them in
the way thither. So they left him and fared forward till there appeared
to them afar off a great blackness and therein two fires facing each
other, and the Emir Musa asked the Shaykh, “What is yonder vast
blackness and its twin fires?”; and the guide answered, “Rejoice O Emir,
for this is the City of Brass, as it is described in the Book of Hidden
Treasures which I have by me. Its walls are of black stone and it hath
two towers of Andalusian brass,[128] which appear to the beholder in the
distance as they were twin fires, and hence is it named the City of
Brass.” Then they fared on without ceasing till they drew near the city
and behold, it was as it were a piece of a mountain or a mass of iron
cast in a mould and impenetrable for the height of its walls and
bulwarks; while nothing could be more beautiful than its buildings and
its ordinance. So they dismounted down and sought for an entrance, but
saw none neither found any trace of opening in the walls, albeit there
were five-and-twenty portals to the city, but none of them was visible
from without. Then quoth the Emir, “O Shaykh, I see to this city no sign
of any gate;” and quoth he, “O Emir, thus is it described in my Book of
Hidden Treasures; it hath five-and-twenty portals; but none thereof may
be opened save from within the city.” Asked Musa, “And how shall we do
to enter the city and view its wonders?” and Talib son of Sahl, his
Wazir, answered, “Allah assain the Emir! let us rest here two or three
days and, God willing, we will make shift to come within the walls.”
Then said Musa to one of his men, “Mount thy camel and ride round about
the city, so haply thou may light upon a gate or a place somewhat lower
than this fronting us, or Inshallah! a breach whereby we can enter.”
Accordingly he mounted his beast, taking water and victuals with him,
and rode round the city two days and two nights, without drawing rein to
rest, but found the wall thereof as it were one block, without breach or
way of ingress; and on the third day, he came again in sight of his
companions, dazed and amazed at what he had seen of the extent and
loftiness of the place, and said, “O Emir, the easiest place of access
is this where you have alighted.” Then Musa took Talib and Abd al-Samad
and ascended the highest hill which overlooked the city. When they
reached the top, they beheld beneath them a city, never saw eyes a
greater or a goodlier, with dwelling-places and mansions of towering
height, and palaces and pavilions and domes gleaming gloriously bright
and sconces and bulwarks of strength infinite; and its streams were
a-flowing and flowers a-blowing and fruits a-glowing. It was a city with
gates impregnable; but void and still, without a voice or a cheering
inhabitant. The owl hooted in its quarters; the bird skimmed circling
over its squares and the raven croaked in its great thoroughfares
weeping and bewailing the dwellers who erst made it their dwelling.[129]
The Emir stood awhile, marvelling and sorrowing for the desolation of
the city and saying, “Glory to Him whom nor ages nor changes nor times
can blight, Him who created all things of His Might!” Presently, he
chanced to look aside and caught sight of seven tablets of white marble
afar off. So he drew near them and finding inscriptions graven thereon,
called the Shaykh and bade him read these. Accordingly he came forward
and, examining the inscriptions, found that they contained matter of
admonition and warning and instances and restraint to those of
understanding. On the first tablet was inscribed, in the ancient Greek
character: “O son of Adam, how heedless art thou of that which is before
thee! Verily, thy years and months and days have diverted thee
therefrom. Knowest thou not that the cup of death is filled for thy bane
which in a little while to the dregs thou shalt drain? Look to thy doom
ere thou enter thy tomb. Where be the Kings who held dominion over the
lands and abased Allah’s servants and built these palaces and had armies
under their commands? By Allah, the Destroyer of delights and the
Severer of societies and the Devastator of dwelling-places came down
upon them and transported them from the spaciousness of their palaces to
the staidness of their burial-places.” And at the foot of the tablet
were written the following verses:—
“Where are the Kings earth-peopling, where are they? ✿ The built and
peopled left they e’er and aye!
They’re tombed yet pledged to actions past away ✿ And after death upon
them came decay.
Where are their troops? They failed to ward and guard! ✿ Where are the
wealth and hoards in treasuries lay?
Th’ Empyrean’s Lord surprised them with one word, ✿ Nor wealth nor
refuge could their doom delay!”
When the Emir heard this, he cried out and the tears ran down his cheeks
and he exclaimed, “By Allah, from the world abstaining is the wisest
course and the sole assaining!” And he called for pen-case and paper and
wrote down what was graven on the first tablet. Then he drew near the
second tablet and found these words graven thereon, “O son of Adam, what
hath seduced thee from the service of the Ancient of Days and made thee
forget that one day thou must defray the debt of death? Wottest thou not
that it is a transient dwelling wherein for none there is abiding; and
yet thou takest thought unto the world and cleavest fast thereto? Where
be the kings who Irak peopled and the four quarters of the globe
possessed? Where be they who abode in Ispahan and the land of Khorasan?
The voice of the Summoner of Death summoned them and they answered him,
and the Herald of Destruction hailed them and they replied, Here are we!
Verily, that which they builded and fortified profited them naught;
neither did what they had gathered and provided avail for their
defence.” And at the foot of the tablet were graven the following
verses:—
Where be the men who built and fortified ✿ High places never man their
like espied?
In fear of Fate they levied troops and hosts, ✿ Availing naught when
came the time and tide,
Where be the Kisrás homed in strongest walls? ✿ As though they ne’er had
been from home they hied!
The Emir Musa wept and exclaimed, “By Allah, we are indeed created for a
grave matter!” Then he copied the inscription and passed on to the third
tablet,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir Musa
passed on to the third tablet, whereon was written, “O son of Adam, the
things of this world thou lovest and prizest and the hest of thy Lord
thou spurnest and despisest. All the days of thy life pass by and thou
art content thus to aby. Make ready thy viaticum against the day
appointed for thee to see and prepare to answer the Lord of every
creature that be!” And at the foot were written these verses:—
Where is the wight who peopled in the past ✿ Hind-land and Sind; and
there the tyrant played?
Who Zanj[130] and Habash bound beneath his yoke, ✿ And Nubia curbed and
low its puissance laid.
Look not for news of what is in his grave. ✿ Ah, he is far who can thy
vision aid!
The stroke of death fell on him sharp and sure; ✿ Nor saved him palace,
nor the lands he swayed.
At this Musa wept with sore weeping and, going on to the fourth tablet,
he read inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam, how long shall thy Lord bear
with thee and thou every day sunken in the sea of thy folly? Hath it
then been stablished unto thee that some day thou shalt not die? O son
of Adam, let not the deceits of thy days and nights and times and hours
delude thee with their delights; but remember that death lieth ready for
thee ambushing, fain on thy shoulders to spring, nor doth a day pass but
he mourneth with thee in the morning and nighteth with thee by night.
Beware, then, of his onslaught and make provision there-against. As was
with me, so it is with thee; thou wastest thy whole life and squanderest
the joys in which thy days are rife. Hearken, therefore, to my words and
put thy trust in the Lord of Lords; for in the world there is no
stability; it is but as a spider’s web to thee.” And at the foot of the
tablet were written these couplets:—
Where is the man who did those labours ply ✿ And based and built and
reared these walls on high?
Where be the castles’ lords? Who therein dwelt ✿ Fared forth and left
them in decay to lie.
All are entombed, in pledge against the day ✿ When every sin shall show
to every eye.
None but the Lord Most High endurance hath, ✿ Whose Might and Majesty
shall never die.
When the Emir read this, he swooned away and presently coming to himself
marvelled exceedingly and wrote it down. Then he drew near the fifth
tablet and behold, thereon was graven, “O son of Adam, what is it that
distracteth thee from obedience of thy Creator and the Author of thy
being, Him who reared thee whenas thou wast a little one, and fed thee
whenas thou wast full-grown? Thou art ungrateful for His bounty, albeit
He watcheth over thee with His favours, letting down the curtain of His
protection over thee. Needs must there be for thee an hour bitterer than
aloes and hotter than live coals. Provide thee, therefore, against it;
for who shall sweeten its gall or quench its fires? Bethink thee who
forewent thee of peoples and heroes and take warning by them, ere thou
perish.” And at the foot of the tablet were graven these couplets:—
Where be the Earth-kings who from where they ‘bode, ✿ Sped and to
graveyards with their hoardings yode:
Erst on their mounting-days there hadst beheld ✿ Hosts that concealed
the ground whereon they rode:
How many a king they humbled in their day! ✿ How many a host they led
and laid on load!
But from th’ Empyrean’s Lord in haste there came ✿ One word, and joy
waxed grief ere morning glowed.
The Emir marvelled at this and wrote it down; after which he passed on
to the sixth tablet and behold, was inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam,
think not that safety will endure for ever and aye, seeing that death is
sealed to thy head alway. Where be thy fathers, where be thy brethren,
where thy friends and dear ones? They have all gone to the dust of the
tombs and presented themselves before the Glorious, the Forgiving, as if
they had never eaten nor drunken, and they are a pledge for that which
they have earned. So look to thyself, ere thy tomb come upon thee.” And
at the foot of the tablet were these couplets:—
Where be the Kings who ruled the Franks of old? ✿ Where be the King who
peopled Tingis-wold[131]?
Their works are written in a book which He, ✿ The One, th’ All-father
shall as witness hold.
At this the Emir Musa marvelled and wrote it down, saying, “There is no
god but _the_ God! Indeed, how goodly were these folk!” Then he went up
to the seventh tablet and behold, thereon was written, “Glory to Him who
fore-ordaineth death to all He createth, the Living One, who dieth not!
O son of Adam, let not thy days and their delights delude thee, neither
thine hours and the delices of their time, and know that death to thee
cometh and upon thy shoulder sitteth. Beware, then, of his assault and
make ready for his onslaught. As it was with me, so it is with thee;
thou wastest the sweet of thy life and the joyance of thine hours. Give
ear, then, to my rede and put thy trust in the Lord of Lords and know
that in the world is no stability, but it is as it were a spider’s web
to thee and all that is therein shall die and cease to be. Where is he
who laid the foundation of Amid[132] and builded it and builded
Fárikín[133] and exalted it? Where be the peoples of the strong places?
Whenas them they had inhabited, after their might into the tombs they
descended. They have been carried off by death and we shall in like
manner be afflicted by doom. None abideth save Allah the Most High, for
He is Allah the Forgiving One.” The Emir Musa wept and copied all this,
and indeed the world was belittled in his eyes. Then he descended the
hill and rejoined his host, with whom he passed the rest of the day,
casting about for a means of access to the city. And he said to his
Wazir Talib bin Sahl and to the chief officers about him, “How shall we
contrive to enter this city and view its marvels?: haply we shall find
therein wherewithal to win the favour of the Commander of the Faithful.”
“Allah prolong the Emir’s fortune!” replied Talib, “let us make a ladder
and mount the wall therewith, so peradventure we may come at the gate
from within.” Quoth the Emir, “This is what occurred to my thought also,
and admirable is the advice!” Then he called for carpenters and
blacksmiths and bade them fashion wood and build a ladder plated and
banded with iron. So they made a strong ladder and many men wrought at
it a whole month. Then all the company laid hold of it and set it up
against the wall, and it reached the top as truly as if it had been
built for it before that time. The Emir marvelled and said, “The
blessing of Allah be upon you. It seems as though ye had taken the
measure of the mure, so excellent is your work.” Then said he to his
men, “Which of you will mount the ladder and walk along the wall and
cast about for a way of descending into the city, so to see how the case
stands and let us know how we may open the gate?” Whereupon quoth one of
them, “I will go up, O Emir, and descend and open to you”; and Musa
answered, saying, “Go and the blessing of Allah go with thee!” So the
man mounted the ladder; but, when he came to the top of the wall, he
stood up and gazed fixedly down into the city, then clapped his hands
and crying out, at the top of his voice, “By Allah, thou art fair!” cast
himself down into the place, and Musa cried, “By Allah, he is a dead
man!” But another came up to him and said, “O Emir, this was a madman
and doubtless his madness got the better of him and destroyed him. I
will go up and open the gate to you, if it be the will of Allah the Most
High.” “Go up,” replied Musa, “and Allah be with thee! But beware lest
thou lose thy head, even as did thy comrade.” Then the man mounted the
ladder, but no sooner had he reached the top of the wall than he laughed
aloud, saying, “Well done! well done!”; and clapping palms cast himself
down into the city and died forthright. When the Emir saw this, he said,
“An such be the action of a reasonable man, what is that of the madman?
If all our men do on this wise, we shall have none left and shall fail
of our errand and that of the Commander of the Faithful. Get ye ready
for the march: verily we have no concern with this city.” But a third
one of the company said, “Haply another may be steadier than they.” So a
third mounted the wall and a fourth and a fifth and all cried out and
cast themselves down, even as did the first; nor did they leave to do
thus, till a dozen had perished in like fashion. Then the Shaykh Abd
al-Samad came forward and heartened himself and said, “This affair is
reserved to none other than myself; for the experienced is not like the
inexperienced.” Quoth the Emir, “Indeed thou shalt not do that nor will
I have thee go up: an thou perish, we shall all be cut off to the last
man since thou art our guide.” But he answered, saying, “Peradventure,
that which we seek may be accomplished at my hands, by the grace of God
Most High!” So the folk all agreed to let him mount the ladder, and he
arose and heartening himself, said, “In the name of Allah, the
Compassionating, the Compassionate!” and mounted the ladder, calling on
the name of the Lord and reciting the Verses of Safety.[134] When he
reached the top of the wall, he clapped his hands and gazed fixedly down
into the city; whereupon the folk below cried out to him with one
accord, saying, “O Shaykh Abd al-Samad, for the Lord’s sake, cast not
thyself down!”; and they added, “Verily we are Allah’s and unto Him we
are returning! If the Shaykh fall, we are dead men one and all.” Then he
laughed beyond all measure and sat a long hour, reciting the names of
Allah Almighty and repeating the Verses of Safety; then he rose and
cried out at the top of his voice, saying, “O Emir, have no fear; no
hurt shall betide you, for Allah (to whom belong Might and Majesty!)
hath averted from me the wiles and malice of Satan, by the blessing of
the words, ‘In the name of Allah the Compassionating the
Compassionate!’” Asked Musa, “What didst thou see, O Shaykh?” and Abd
al-Samad answered, “I saw ten maidens, as they were Houris of Heaven
calling to me with their hands”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,