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“I will well,” answered I; so he bade the slaves carry out carpets and cushions and roast a lamb and bring us some fruit. They did as he bade them, and we ate of the fruits, he using his left hand for the purpose. After awhile, I said to him, “Tell me thy story.” “O physician of the age,” answered he, “hear what befell me. Know that I am a native of Mosul and my father was the eldest of ten brothers, who were all married, but none of them was blessed with children except my father, to whom God had vouchsafed me. So I grew up among my uncles, who rejoiced in me with exceeding joy, till I came to man’s estate. One Friday, I went to the chief mosque of Mosul with my father and my uncles, and we prayed the congregational prayers, after which all the people went out, except my father and uncles, who sat conversing of the wonders of foreign lands and the strange things to be seen in various cities. At last they mentioned Egypt and one of my uncles said, ‘Travellers say that there is not on the face of the earth aught fairer than Cairo and its Nile.’ Quoth my father, ‘Who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world. Its dust is gold and its Nile a wonder; its women are houris and its houses palaces: its air is temperate and the fragrance of its breezes outvies the scent of aloes-wood: and how should it be otherwise, being the mother of the world? Bravo for him who says . . . . . .’ And he repeated the following verses:
Shall I from Cairo wend and leave the sweets of its delight? What sojourn after it indeed were worth a longing thought?
How shall I leave its fertile plains, whose earth unto the scent Is very perfume, for the land contains no thing that’s naught?
It is indeed for loveliness a very Paradise, With all its goodly carpets spread and cushions richly wrought.
A town that maketh heart and eye yearn with its goodliness, Uniting all that of devout and profligate is sought,
Or comrades true, by God His grace conjoined in brotherhood, Their meeting-place the groves of palms that cluster round about.
