Hereupon the
eunuch brought him a pair of sandals wrought with raw silk and green
silk and purfled with red gold, and he took them and after examining
them, set them in his sleeve. Whereat the castrato cried out and said:
"Allah! Allah! O my lord, these are sandals for the treading of thy
feet, so thou mayst wend to the wardrobe." Abu al-Hasan was
confounded, and shaking the sandals from his sleeve, put them on his
feet, whilst the Caliph died of laughter at him. The slave forewent
him to the chapel of ease, where he entered, and doing his job, came
out into the chamber, whereupon the slave girls brought him a basin of
gold and a ewer of silver and poured water on his hands, and he made
the wuzu ablution. Then they spread him a prayer carpet and he prayed.
Now he knew not how to pray, and gave not over bowing and
prostrating for twenty inclinations, pondering in himself the while
and saying: "By Allah, I am none other than the Commander of the
Faithful in very truth! This is assuredly no dream, for all these
things happen not in a dream." And he was convinced and determined
in himself that he was Prince of True Believers, so he pronounced
the salaam and finished his prayers, whereupon the Mamelukes and slave
girls came round about him with bundled suits of silken and linen
stuffs and clad him in the costume of the caliphate and gave the royal
dagger in his hand.
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