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said to him, ‘O Ali, I fear me thou must die in thy grief; thou wilt never see thy beloved again save on Es Sirat;[1] for the people of the Christian’s house, when they arose in the morning, found the window giving on the garden broken in and Zumurrud missing, and with her a pair of saddle-bags, full of the Christian’s money. When I came thither, I found the Master of Police and his officers standing at the door, and there is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme!’
When he heard this, the light in his eyes was changed to darkness and he despaired of life and made sure of death; nor did he leave weeping, till he lost his senses. When he recovered, love and longing were sore upon him; there befell him a grievous sickness and he kept his house a whole year; during which time the old woman ceased not to bring him doctors and ply him with diet-drinks and make him broths, till his life returned to him. Then he recalled what had passed and repeated the following verses:
Union is parted; in its stead, of grief I am possessed: My tears flow still, my heart’s on fire for yearning and unrest.
Longing redoubles on a wight who hath no peace, so sore Of love and wakefulness and pain he’s wasted and oppressed.
Lord, I beseech Thee, if there be relief for me in aught, Vouchsafe it, whilst a spark of life abideth in my breast.
When the second year began, the old woman said to him, ‘O my son, all this thy sadness and sorrowing will not bring thee back thy mistress. Rise, therefore, take heart and seek for her in the lands: haply thou shalt light on some news of her.’ And she ceased not to exhort and encourage him, till he took heart and she carried him to the bath. Then she made him drink wine and eat fowls, and thus she did with him for a whole month, till he re-
- ↑ The bridge that spans Hell, finer than a hair and sharper than a sword, and over which all must pass on the Day of Judgment.
