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for Time is God; neither the world, for it saith, ‘May God not help him that reviles me!’ neither the hour, for ‘Verily, the hour cometh, without doubt;’[1] neither the earth, for it is a portent, according to the saying of the Most High, ‘From it we created you, to it we will return you and from it we will bring you forth yet again.’”’[2] (Q.) ‘What are the five that ate and drank, yet came not out of loins nor belly?’ (A.) ‘Adam and Simeon and Salih’s she-camel[3] and Ishmael’s ram and the bird that Abou Bekr the Truth-teller saw in the cave.’[4] (Q.) ‘Tell me of five that are in Paradise and are neither mortals, Jinn nor angels?’ (A.) ‘Jacob’s wolf and the Seven Sleepers’ dog and Esdras’s ass and Salih’s camel and the Prophet’s mule.’ (Q.) ‘What man prayed a prayer neither on earth nor in heaven?’ (A.) ‘Solomon [son of David], when he prayed on his carpet, borne by the wind.’ (Q.) ‘A man once looked at a handmaid in the morning, and she was unlawful to him; but, at noonday, she became lawful to him. By mid-afternoon, she was again unlawful, but at sundown, she was lawful to him. At evensong, she was a third time unlawful, but by daybreak, she became once more lawful to him.’ (A.) ‘This was a man who looked at another’s handmaid in the morning, and she was then unlawful to him, but at midday he bought her, and she became lawful to him. At mid-afternoon he enfranchised her, and she became unlawful to him, but at sundown he married her and she was again lawful to him. At evensong, he divorced her and she was then a third time unlawful to him, but, next morning, at daybreak, he
