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The rains of the Forgiving One, belike, shall wash away The past and on the sinner’s head the grace of God shall pour;
Ay, and the captive, shackled though he be, shall yet escape, And in the prison of God’s wrath the slave shall pine no more.
And they ceased not to be in all delight and solace of life, till there came to them the Destroyer of Delights and the Sunderer of Companies.
IBRAHIM BEN EL KHAWWAS AND THE CHRISTIAN KING’S DAUGHTER.
(Quoth Sidi Ibrahim ben el Khawwas,[1] on whom be the mercy of God), My soul was instant with me, once upon a time, to go forth into the country of the infidels; and I strove with it and essayed to put away this thought from me, but it persisted and would not be denied. So I went forth and journeyed about the land of the unbelievers and traversed it in all its parts, for the grace of God enveloped me and His protection encompassed me, so that I met not a Christian, but he turned away his eyes and held aloof from me, till I came to a great city at whose gate I found a company of black slaves, clad in armour and bearing iron maces in their hands. When they saw me, they rose to their feet and said to me, ‘Art thou a physician?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Quoth they, ‘By order of the King,’ and carried me before their monarch, who was a handsome man of majestic aspect. When I came into his presence, he looked at me and said, ‘Art thou a physician?’ ‘Yes,’ answered
- ↑ Apparently some well-known saint, the title sidi (my lord) being one peculiar to men renowned for sanctity. Khawwas means “basket-maker,” and this surname denotes that the saint in question, in all probability, earned his living by basket-making, like the pious King in the story of the saint to whom God gave a cloud, etc. See supra, p. 28. It is incumbent upon devout Muslims, even to the Khalifs, to earn their bread by manual labour of some kind. See “The Devout Prince.”
