" Thereupon she came forward and getting under him as
he lay asleep, took him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, leaving
the rest of his garments, and ceased not flying (and the Ifrit vying
with her in flight) till the dawn advised them that it had come upon
them midway, and the muezzin began his call from the minaret: "Haste
ye to salvation! Haste ye to salvation!" Then Allah suffered His
angelic host to shoot down the Ifrit with a shooting star, so he was
consumed, but the Ifritah escaped, and she descended with Badr
al-Din at the place where the Ifrit was burnt, and did not carry him
back to Bassorah, fearing lest he come to harm.
Now by the order of Him who predestineth all things, they alighted
at Damascus of Syria, and the Ifritah set down her burden at one of
the city gates and flew away. When day arose and the doors were
opened, the folk who came forth saw a handsome youth, with no other
raiment but his blue shirt of gold-embroidered silk and skullcap,
lying upon the ground drowned in sleep after the hard labor of the
night, which had not suffered him to take his rest. So the folk,
looking at him, said: "Oh, her luck with whom this one spent the
night! But would he had waited to don his garments!" Quoth another: "A
sorry lot are the sons of great families! Haply he but now came
forth of the tavern on some occasion of his own and his wine flew to
his head, whereby he hath missed the place he was making for and
strayed till he came to the gate of the city, and finding it shut, lay
him down and went to by-by!"
As the people were bandying guesses about him, suddenly the
morning breeze blew upon Badr al-Din and raising his shirt to his
middle, showed a stomach and navel with something below it, and legs
and thighs clear as crystal and smooth as cream.
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