Those maidens answered him, "We have been put here so that we may be
eaten together with you. We have been lost to our parents many years."
He locked that room and went and opened the third. There he found swords
with jewelled hilts fighting in the air by themselves, and he was very
astonished.
Ali locked up the third room again, and now there were three rooms he
had not yet opened.
He opened the fourth room, and found it filled from top to bottom with
precious stones. Then he opened the fifth room, and found it full of
grain; this was the horse's food.
He then went and unlocked the sixth room, and there he found the
horse's saddle and bridle, adorned with jewels, and he found seven
bottles; the first was full of sun, the second of rain, the third of
needles, the fourth of hail, the fifth of thorns, the sixth of mud, and
the seventh of sea.
Then he returned to the horse's room, and when he saw Ali he neighed and
shook his head.
The horse said to Ali, "We who are in this house are as if we were
already dead; we will all be eaten alike."
Then he said, "Open the wheat store quickly, that I may eat, for the
time is nearly spent when that evil-disposed Jin will return."
Ali went and brought a sack of grain and opened it, and the horse ate
and said, "Bring me a second sack, for I am not yet satisfied."
He brought a second, and the horse ate and finished it, and said, "Bring
a third, for I am not yet full."
So he ate a third sack, and then he said, "Bring a bucket of water, stir
it up with sugar, for that is the kind of water that I drink, and mix me
up another bucket with bhang."
Then he said, "Now I am satisfied. Bring my saddle and the seven
bottles, and take bags and fill them with precious stones and fasten
them on quickly, that we may go."
So Ali put all the valuables in the house in bags, and he took those
seven maidens and placed them in bags, and he saddled the horse and
fastened those bags on to him.