And es-Saffâh, hearing this, laughed, and said, "I will give them all in cultivated land."
And the narrator of this tale remarks, "Observe his adroitness and cunning in asking; how he began with the sporting dog, which it was easy to grant, and made one demand lead to another, in order and amusingly, until he had gained everything he wanted. Whereas had he asked for all at once, verily it would have been refused him. May Allâh prosper him!"
the present day were to say, "I'll give you a hundred castles in Spain." But I find that there were three different tribes of that name, though there seems to be nothing in their history or locality to give point to the expression in the tale. One of these tribes appears to have been connected with the Benu-Tamîm (see Note *, p. 54), and it may be that at the epoch referred to it would have been a difficult matter for the Khalîfah to derive any benefit from the gift thus jocosely made.
