Who is there to aid me in my affliction? For my pain hath become intense, and my remedy is scarce procurable!
And the jailer pulled off from him his clean clothes, and, having clad him in two dirty garments, brought him out to the Wezir. Nur-ed-Din then looked at him, and saw that he was his enemy who had incessantly desired his destruction; and when he beheld him, he wept, and said to him, Art thou secure from misfortune? Hast thou not heard the saying of the poet?
They made use of their power, and used it tyrannically; and soon it became as though it never had existed.
O Wezir, know that God (whose perfection be extolled, and whose name be exalted!) is the doer of whatsoever He willeth O 'Ali, replied the Wezir, wouldst thou frighten me by these words? I am now going to strike off thy head, in spite of the people of El-Basrah; and I will pay no regard to thy counsel; but I will rather attend to the saying of the poet:
Let fortune do whatever it willeth, and bear with cheerful mind the effects of fate.
How excellent also is the saying of another poet:He who liveth after his enemy a single day, hath attained his desire.
The Wezir then ordered his pages to convey him on the back of a mule; whereupon they said to him (being distressed to obey), Suffer us to stone him and cut him in pieces, though our lives should be sacrificed in consequence. But he replied, Never do it. Have ye not heard what the poet hath said:
A decreed term is my inevitable lot; and as soon as its days have expired, I die.
If the lions dragged me into their forest, they could not close it while aught of it remained.
So they proceeded to proclaim before Nur-ed-Din, This is the smallest recompense of him who forgeth a letter from the Khalifeh to the Sultan. And they continued to parade him throughout El-Basrah until they stationed him beneath the window of the palace,
