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because of his separation from his brother, sent to tell the king, who said, ‘If this, which is but a beast, cannot brook to be parted from his brother, how should it be with those that have reason?’ And he bade his grooms take the other horse and put him with his brother in the vizier’s stable, saying, ‘Tell the vizier that the two horses are a present from me to him, for the sake of my daughter Meryem.’
Noureddin was lying in the stable, chained and shackled, when they brought the horses, and saw that one of them had a web in his eyes. Now he had some knowledge of horses and of the treatment of their diseases; so he said in himself, ‘By Allah, this is my opportunity! I will go to the vizier and lie to him, saying, “I will cure thee this horse:” then will I do with him somewhat that will destroy his eyes, and he will kill me and I shall be at rest from this wretched life.’ So he waited till the vizier entered the stable, to look upon the horse, and said to him, ‘O my lord, what wilt thou give me, if I cure this horse, and make his eyes whole again?’ ‘As my head liveth,’ replied the vizier, ‘an thou cure him, I will spare thy life and give thee leave to ask a boon of me!’ And Noureddin said, ‘O my lord, command my hands to be unbound.’ So the vizier bade unbind him and he rose and taking virgin glass,[1] brayed it and mixed it with unslaked lime and onion-juice. Then he applied the whole to the horse’s eyes and bound them up, saying in himself, ‘Now will his eyes be put out and they will kill
- ↑ What virgin glass may be I cannot undertake to say: a remote sense of the word (zejaj) translated “glass” is “clove-berries,” and this, though rarely used, would seem the more probable reading, were it not that Noureddin’s avowed object (sufficiently attested, indeed, by the nature of the other ingredients of the mixture) was to destroy the horse’s eyes, a purpose which pounded glass would certainly seem well calculated to effect.
