" Then I got together my remains of estates and property and sold
all, even my clothes, for three thousand dirhams, with which I
resolved to travel to foreign parts, remembering the saying of the
poet:
By means of toil man shall scale the height,
Who to fame aspires mustn't sleep o' night.
Who seeketh pearl in the deep must dive,
Winning weal and wealth by his main and might.
And who seeketh Fame without toil and strife
Th' impossible seeketh and wasteth life.
So, taking heart, I bought me goods, merchandise and all needed
for a voyage, and impatient to be at sea, I embarked, with a company
of merchants, on board a ship bound for Bassorah. There we again
embarked and sailed many days and nights, and we passed from isle to
isle and sea to sea and shore to shore, buying and selling and
bartering everywhere the ship touched, and continued our course till
we came to an island as it were a garth of the gardens of Paradise.
Here the captain cast anchor and, making fast to the shore, put out
the landing planks. So all on board landed and made furnaces, and
lighting fires therein, busied themselves in various ways, some
cooking and some washing, whilst other some walked about the island
for solace, and the crew fell to eating and drinking and playing and
sporting.
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