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Now he knew not how to pray and gave not over bowing and prostrating himself, [till he had prayed the prayers] of twenty inclinations,[1] pondering in himself the while and saying, “By Allah, I am none other than the Commander of the Faithful in very sooth! This is assuredly no dream, for all these things happen not in a dream.” And he was convinced and determined in himself that he was Commander of the Faithful; so he pronounced the Salutation[2] and made an end[3] of his prayers; whereupon the slaves and slave-girls came round about him with parcels of silk and stuffs[4] and clad him in the habit of the Khalifate and gave him the royal dagger in his hand. Then the chief eunuch went out before him and the little white slaves behind him, and they ceased not [going] till they raised the curtain and brought him into the hall of judgment and the throne-room of the Khalifate. There he saw the curtains and the forty doors and El Ijli and Er Recashi[5] and Ibdan and Jedim and Abou Ishac[6] the boon-companions and beheld swords drawn and lions[7] encompassing [the throne] and gilded glaives and death-dealing bows and Persians and Arabs and Turks and Medes and folk and peoples and Amirs
- ↑ The morning-prayer consists of four inclinations (rekäat) only. A certain fixed succession of prayers and acts of adoration is called a rekah (sing. of rekäat) from the inclination of the body that occurs in it.
- ↑ i.e. the terminal formula of prayer, “Peace be on us and on all the righteous servants of God!”
- ↑ i.e. said “I purpose to make an end of prayer.”
- ↑ Or “linen.”
- ↑ A well-known poet of the time.
- ↑ i.e. Ibrahim of Mosul, the greatest musician of his day.
- ↑ i.e. doughty men of war, guards.
