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And she ceased not to weep and bemoan herself till the morning, when the neighbours came in to her and questioned her of her son, and she told them what had befallen him with the Persian, assured that she should never see him again. Then she went round about the house weeping, till she espied two lines written upon the wall; so she sent for a learned man, who read them to her; and they were as follows:
The phantom of Leila came to me in dreams, tow’rds the break of day, When slumber ruled and my comrades all in the desert sleeping lay;
But, when I awoke to the dream of the night, that came to visit me, I found the air void and the wonted place of our rendezvous far away.
When she heard this, she cried out and said, ‘Yes, O my son! Indeed, the house is desolate and distant the place of visitation!’ Then the neighbours took leave of her and went away, after they had prayed that she might be vouchsafed patience and speedy reunion with her son; but she ceased not to weep all tides of the day and watches of the night and built a tomb amiddleward the house, on which she let write Hassan’s name and the date of his loss, and thenceforward she quitted it not, but sojourned by it night and day.
Now this Persian was a Magian, who hated Muslims with an exceeding hatred and destroyed all who fell into his power. He was a lewd and filthy villain, an alchemist, an astrologer and a seeker after hidden treasures, such an one as he of whom quoth the poet:
A dog, the son of a dog, is he and his grandfather, too, was one; And when was there ever aught of good in a dog, of a dog the son?
The name of this accursed wretch was Behram the Magian, and he was wont, every year, to take a Muslim and slaughter him for a purpose of his own. So, when he had carried out his plot against Hassan the goldsmith,
