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I; and he said to his officers, ‘Carry him to her and acquaint him with the condition, ere he enter.’ So they took me out and said to me, ‘Know that the King hath a daughter, who is stricken with a sore distemper, which no physician hath availed to cure: and none goeth in to her and treateth her, without curing her, but the King putteth him to death. So bethink thee what thou wilt do?’ Quoth I, ‘The King sent me to her; so carry me to her.’ Accordingly, they brought me to her door and knocked; and I heard her cry out from within, saying, ‘Admit the physician, lord of the wondrous secret!’ And she recited the following verses:
Open the door, for the physician’s here; And see, I have a secret wonder-dear.
How many near in spirit distant are! How many spirit-distant yet are near!
I was an exile midst you, but the Truth[1] Willed that my solace should eftsoon appear.
Religious kinship bound us and we met, As lover and belov’d, in joy and cheer.
He summoned me to meeting; but the spy And censor ’twixt our loves did interfere.
Out on ye! Leave your chiding and your prate; For unto you I may not lend an ear.
With that which passes by I’ve no concern; Upon the eternal things my hopes I rear.
And behold, an old man opened the door in haste and said to me, ‘Enter.’ So I entered and found myself in a saloon strewn with sweet-scented herbs and with a curtain drawn across one corner, from behind which came a sound of groaning, weak as from an emaciated body. I sat down before the curtain and was about to pronounce the salutation, when I bethought me of the words of him whom God bless and preserve, ‘Accost not a Jew nor a Christian with the salutation, and when ye meet them in the way, constrain
- ↑ El Hecc, one of the names of God.
