There was once in Mauritania land a King who exceeded in his rule, a tyrant, violent and over severe, who had no respect for the welfare or protection of his subjects nor of those who entered his realm; and from everyone who came within his Kingdom his officers took four fifths of his monies, leaving him one fifth and no more. Now Allah Almighty decreed that he should have a son, who was fortunate and God favoured and seeing the pomps and vanities of this world to be transient as they are unrighteous, renounced them in his youth and rejected the world and that which is within it and fared forth serving the Most High, wandering pilgrim wise over wolds and wastes and bytimes entering towns and cities. One day, he came to his father's capital and the guards laid hands on him and searched him but found

The Unjust King And The Pilgrim Prince. 51 nothing upon him save two gowns, one new and the other old. So they stripped the new one from him and left him the old, after they had entreated him with contumely and contempt; at which he complained and said, "Woe to you, O you oppressors! I am a poor man and a pilgrim, and what shall this gown by any means profit you? Except you restore it to me, I will go to the King and make complaint to him of you." They replied, "We act thus by the King's command: so do what seems good to you." Accordingly he betook himself to the King's palace and would have entered; but the chamberlains denied him admittance, and he turned away, saying in himself, "There is nothing for me except to watch till he comes out and complain to him of my case and that which has befallen me." And whilst he waited, behold, he heard one of the guards announce the King's faring forth; whereupon he crept up, little by little, till he stood before the gate; and presently when the King came out, he threw himself in his way and after blessing him and wishing him weal, he made his complaint to him informing him how scurvily he had been entreated by the gatekeepers. Lastly he gave him to know that he was a man of the people of Allah who had rejected the world seeking acceptance of Allah and who went wandering over earth and entering every city and hamlet, whilst all the folk he met gave him alms according to their competence. "I entered this your city" (he continued), "hoping that the folk would deal kindly and graciously with me as with others of my condition; but your followers stopped me and stripped me of one of my gowns and loaded me with blows. Why do you look into my case and take me by the hand and get me back my gown and I will not abide in your city an hour." the unjust said King "Who directed you to enter this city, unknowing the custom of its King?"; and the pilgrim "Give me back my gown and do with me what you will."

Now when the King heard this, his temper changed for the worse and he said,

"O fool, we stripped you of your gown, so you might humble yourself to us; but since you make this clamour I will strip your soul from you." Then he commanded to cast him into gaol, where he began to repent of having answered the King and reproached himself for not having left him the gown and saved his life. When it was the middle of the night, he rose to his feet and prayed long and prayerfully, saying, "O Allah, You are the Righteous Judge; You know my case and that which has befallen me with this tyrannical King, and I, Yours oppressed servant, beseech You, of the abundance of Your mercy, to deliver me from the hand of this unjust ruler and send down on him Your vengeance; for You are not unmindful of the unright of every oppressor. Why, if You know that he has wronged me, loose on him Your vengeance this night and send down on him Your punishment; for Your rule is just and You are the Helper of every mourner, O You to whom belong the power and the glory to the end of time!" When the gaoler heard the prayer of the poor prisoner he trembled in every limb, and behold, a fire suddenly broke out in the King's palace and consumed it and all that were within it, even to the door of the prison, and none was spared but the gaoler and the pilgrim.

Now when the gaoler saw this, he knew that it had not befallen save because of the pilgrim's prayer; so he loosed him and fleeing with him forth of the burning, betook himself, he and the King's son, to another city. So was the unjust King consumed, he and all his city, by reason of his injustice, and he lost the goods both of this world and the next world. "As for us, " continued the Wazir, "we neither lie down nor rise up without praying for you and thanking Allah the Most High for His grace in giving you to us, tranquil in reliance on your justice and the excellence of your governance; and sore indeed was our care for your lack of a son to inherit your kingdom, fearing lest after you there happen us a King unlike you. But now the Almighty has bestowed His favours upon us and done away our concern and brought us gladness in the birth of this blessed child; Why we beseech the Lord to make him

The Crows And The Hawk. 53 a worthy successor to you and endow him with glory and felicity enduring and good abiding." Then rose the fifth Wazir and said, "Blessed be the Most High,"—

When it was the Nine Hundred and sixth night

Asked the King, "And what befell the Crows?"; and the Wazir answered saying, "Hear,the tale of