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might and majesty) permitteth and unlawful that which He forbiddeth.’
With this the discourse between them came to an end and Shimas and all the learned men, who were present, rose and prostrating themselves before the prince, magnified and extolled him, whilst his father pressed him to his bosom and seating him on the throne of kingship, said, ‘Praised be God who hath blessed me with a son to be the solace of mine eyes in my lifetime!’ Then said the prince to Shimas, ‘O sage that art versed in metaphysical questions, albeit God hath vouchsafed me but little knowledge, yet do I apprehend thine intent in accepting from me what I proffered in answer concerning that whereof thou hast asked me, whether I hit or missed the mark therein, and belike thou forgavest my errors; but now I wish to question thee of a thing, whereof my judgment fails and whereto my capacity is unequal and which my tongue availeth not to set forth, for that it is obscure to me, with the obscurity of limpid water in a black vessel; wherefore I would have thee expound it to me, so no whit thereof may remain doubtful to the like of me, to whom its obscurity may present itself in the future, even as it hath presented itself to me in the past; since God, even as He hath made life to be in water[1] and sustenance in food and the healing of the sick in the physician’s skill, so hath He appointed the cure of the ignorant to be in the learning of the wise. Give ear, therefore, to my speech.’ ‘O luminous of wit and master of apt questions,’ replied the vizier, ‘thou whose superiority all the learned men attest, by reason of the goodliness of thy discrimination of things and thy departition[2] thereof and the justness of thine answers to the questions I have put to thee, thou knowest that thou canst ask me of nought but thou art better able [than I] to form a just
