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purse from the servant, made him withdraw afar off; after which he went up to the door and knocked. Khuzeimeh came out to him, and he gave him the purse, saying, ‘Better thy condition with this.’ He took it and finding it heavy, put it from his hand and laying hold of the bridle of Ikrimeh’s horse, said, ‘Who art thou? My soul be thy ransom!’ ‘O man,’ answered Ikrimeh, ‘I come not to thee at the like of this time desiring that thou shouldst know me.’ Khuzeimeh rejoined, saying, ‘I will not let thee go till thou make thyself known to me.’ And Ikrimeh said, ‘I am Jabir Athrat el Kiram.’[1] Quoth Khuzeimeh, ‘Tell me more.’ But Ikrimeh answered, ‘No,’ and went away, whilst Khuzeimeh went in to his wife and said to her, ‘Rejoice, for God hath sent us speedy relief; if these be but dirhems, yet are they many. Arise and light the lamp.’ But she said, ‘I have not wherewithal to do this.’ So he spent the night handling the coins and felt by their roughness that they were dinars, but could not credit it.
Meanwhile, Ikrimeh returned to his own house and found that his wife had missed him and enquiring for him, had been told of his riding forth, wherefore she misdoubted of him and said to him, ‘The governor of Mesopotamia rideth not abroad, unattended and secretly, after such an hour of the night, save to a wife or a concubine.’ ‘God knows,’ answered he, ‘that I went not forth to either of these.’ ‘Tell me then,’ said she, ‘wherefore thou wentest forth?’ and he, ‘I went not forth at this hour save that none should know it.’ But she rejoined, saying, ‘I must needs be told.’ Quoth he, ‘Wilt thou keep the matter secret, if I tell thee?’ and she said, ‘Yes.’ So he told her the state of the case, adding, ‘Wilt thou have me
- ↑ i.e. A repairer of the slips of the noble, an evasive answer meant to put Khuzeimeh off the scent of his benefactor’s identity by making him believe that this was the latter’s real name, a deception easy to practise among the Arabs, whose names all have a manifest meaning.
