I praised my Lord and thanked Him, rejoicing
greatly and heartening myself with the prospect of deliverance.
Then I returned through the crack to the cavern and brought out
all the food and water I had saved up, and donned some of the dead
folk's clothes over my own. After which I gathered together all the
collars and necklaces of pearls and jewels and trinkets of gold and
silver set with precious stones and other ornaments and valuables I
could find upon the corpses, and making them into bundles with the
graveclothes and raiment of the dead, carried them out to the back
of the mountain facing the seashore, where I established myself,
purposing to wait there till it should please Almighty Allah to send
me relief by means of some passing ship. I visited the cavern daily,
and as often as I found folk buried alive there, I killed them all
indifferently, men and women, and took their victual and valuables and
transported them to my seat on the seashore.
Thus I abode a long while till one day I caught sight of a ship
passing in the midst of the clashing sea swollen with dashing billows.
So I took a piece of a white shroud I had with me, and tying it to a
staff, ran along the seashore making signals therewith and calling
to the people in the ship, till they espied me, and hearing my shouts,
sent a boat to fetch me off.
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