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altogether.’ So Courejan and his host made haste to equip themselves and set out in battle array, with the prince at their head, glorying in himself and reciting the following verses:
I’m El Courejan, the first-born of renown! I vanquish the dwellers in desert and town.
How many a champion I’ve slain with my sword! Like an ox, to the earth I have stricken him down.
How many a host have I scattered abroad And their heads made like balls roll o’er desert and down!
Now for Irak I’m bound, for the enemies’ land, Where my foes in the sea of their blood I will drown.
I will lead away Gherib in chains with his chiefs, So their fate to the wise for a warning be known!
They fared on twelve days’ journey, till a great cloud of dust arose before them and covered the horizon and the country, and Courejan sent out scouts to reconnoitre, who returned and said to him, ‘O King, this is the dust of the Muslims.’ Whereat he was glad and said, ‘Did ye count them?’ And they answered, saying, ‘We counted the standards, and they were twenty in number.’ ‘By my faith,’ quoth the prince, ‘I will not send one man-at-arms against them, but will go forth to them alone and strew their heads under the hoofs of the horses!’
Now this was the army of Jemrcan, who, espying the host of the infidels and seeing them as the swollen sea, called a halt; so his troops pitched the tents and set up the standards, calling upon the name of the All-wise Creator of light and darkness, Lord of all creatures, who seeth and is not seen, blessed and exalted be He! There is no god but He! The infidels also halted and pitched their tents, and Courejan said to them, ‘Sleep upon your arms, for in the last watch of the night we will mount and trample yonder handful under our feet!’ Now one of Jemrcan’s spies was standing by and heard what Courejan purposed; so he returned and told his chief who said to his men,
