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heard this, he said, ‘Verily we are God’s and to Him we return! There is no power and no virtue but in God, the Most High, the Supreme! If I killed him, it was by misadventure, and I prithee pardon me.’ But the genie said, ‘There is no help for it but I must kill thee.’ Then he seized him and throwing him down, raised his sword to strike him: whereupon the merchant wept and said, ‘I commit my affair to God!’ and recited the following verses:
Fate has two days, untroubled one, the other lowering, And life two parts, the one content, the other sorrowing.
Say unto him that taunteth us with fortune’s perfidy, ‘At whom but those whose heads are high doth Fate its arrows fling?’
If that the hands of Time have made their plaything of our life, Till for its long protracted kiss ill-hap upon us spring,
Dost thou not see the hurricane, what time the wild winds blow, Smite down the stately trees alone and spare each lesser thing?
Lo! in the skies are many stars, no one can tell their tale, But to the sun and moon alone eclipse brings darkening.
The earth bears many a pleasant herb and many a plant and tree: But none is stoned save only those to which the fair fruit cling.
Look on the sea and how the waifs float up upon the foam, But in its deepest depths of blue the pearls have sojourning.
‘Cut short thy speech,’ said the genie, ‘for, by Allah, there is no help for it but I must kill thee.’ ‘Know, O Afrit,’ replied the merchant, ‘that I have a wife and children and much substance, and I owe debts and hold pledges: so let me return home and give every one his due, and I vow by all that is most sacred that I will return to thee at the end of the year, that thou mayest do with me as thou wilt, and God is witness of what I say.’ The genie accepted his promise and released him, whereupon he returned to his dwelling-place and paid his debts and settled all his affairs. Moreover, he told his wife and children what had happened and made his last dispositions, and tarried with his family till the end of the year. Then
