When he
despaired of finding the purse, he returned to the shore, where he saw
nothing but staff, net, and basket and sought for his clothes but
could light on no trace of them. So he said in himself: "O vilest of
those wherefor was made the byword: 'The pilgrimage is not perfected
save by copulation with the camel!"' Then he wrapped the net about
him, and taking staff in one hand and basket in other, went trotting
about like a camel in rut, running right and left and backward and
forward, disheveled and dusty, as he were a rebel Marid let loose from
Solomon's prison.
So far for what concerns the fisherman Khalifah; but as regards
the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, he had a friend, a jeweler called Ibn
al-Kirnas, and all the traders, brokers, and middlemen knew him for
the Caliph's merchant. Wherefore there was naught sold in Baghdad by
way of rarities and things of price or Mamelukes or handmaidens but
was first shown to him. As he sat one day in his shop, behold, there
came up to him the Sheikh of the brokers, with a slave girl whose like
seers never saw, for she was of passing beauty and loveliness,
symmetry and perfect grace, and among her gifts that she knew all arts
and sciences and could make verses and play upon all manner musical
instruments.
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