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entered the vault, weeping[1] and wailing; and indeed he had lost hope.
But it is a small matter for God (extolled be His perfection and exalted be He) whenas He willeth a thing, to say to it “Be,” and it is; for that He createth relief out of the midst of stress; by token that, when the Maugrabin enchanter sent Alaeddin down into the vault, he gave him a ring and put it on his finger, saying, “This ring will deliver thee from all stress, an thou be in calamities or vicissitudes, and will remove from thee troubles; yea, it will be thy helper whereassoever thou art;” and this was by the foreordinance of God the Most High, so it might be the means of Alaeddin’s deliverance. So, as he sat weeping and bewailing his case and indeed his hope was cut off of life and despair was heavy upon him, he fell, of the excess of his anguish, to wringing[2] his hands, after the wont of the woeful; then, raising them [to heaven], he made supplication to God, saying, “I testify that there is no God but Thou alone, the Mighty, the Powerful, the Conquering, the Giver of Life and Death,[3] Creator and Accomplisher[4] of necessities,
