"Remember when Moses said to his servant, 'I will not stop till I reach the confluence of the two seas, or for eighty years will I journey on.'
"But when they reached their confluence they forgot their fish, and it took its way in the sea at will.
"And when they had passed on, Moses said to his servant, 'Bring us our morning meal, for now we have incurred weariness from this our journey.'
"He said, 'What thinkest thou? When we repaired to the rock for rest, then verily I forgot the fish; and none but Satan made me forget it, so as not to mention it; and it hath taken its way in the sea in a wondrous sort.'
"He said, 'It is this we were in quest of.' So they both went back retracing their footsteps.
"Then found they one of our servants to whom we had vouchsafed our mercy, and whom we had instructed with our knowledge;[29]
"Moses said to him, 'Shall I follow thee that thou teach me, for guidance of that which thou hast been taught?'
"He said, 'Verily, thou canst by no means have patience with me; and how canst thou be patient in matters whose meaning thou comprehendest not?'"—Trans. Rodwell, page 188.
Moses now accompanies the mysterious servant of God,
who does divers things which Moses cannot comprehend;
finally, the Unknown takes leave of Moses, and speaks to
him as follows:
"They will ask thee of Dhoulkarnein (the two-horned).[30]
Say: 'I will recite to you an account of him.'
"Verily, we established his power upon the earth and we gave him a means to accomplish every end, so he followed his way;
"Until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it to set in a miry forest; and hard by, he found a people. . . ."
Now follows a moral reflection; then the narrative continues:
