I saw there also two great censers each big as a mazer
bowl, flaming with lign aloes, nadd perfume, ambergris, and honeyed
scents, and the place was full of their fragrance.
Presently, O my lady, I espied a noble steed, black as the murks
of night when murkiest, standing ready saddled and bridled (and his
saddle was of red gold) before two mangers, one of clear crystal
wherein was husked sesame, and the other also of crystal containing
water of the rose scented with musk. When I saw this I marveled and
said to myself, "Doubtless in this animal must be some wondrous
mystery." And Satan cozened me so I led him without the palace and
mounted him, but he would not stir from his place. So I hammered his
sides with my heels, but he moved not, and then I took the rein whip
and struck him withal. When he felt the blow, he neighed a neigh
with a sound like deafening thunder and, opening a pair of wings, flew
up with me in the firmament of heaven far beyond the eyesight of
man. After a full hour of flight he descended and alighted on a
terrace roof and shaking me off his back, lashed me on the face with
his tad and gouged out my left eye, causing it roll along my cheek.
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