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if you [of the Jinn] thwart us in our commandments, we will thwart you in yours and traverse your ordinances; but, if ye obey our bidding and execute our commandments, we will do the like with yours. Wherefore I bid thee do them no hurt, and if thou believe in God and in His Apostle, it behoveth thee to obey him to whom the commandment is committed. So, if thou spare them, I will requite thee with that whereunto my Lord shall enable me; and the token of obedience is that thou remove thine enchantment from these two men, so they may come before me to-morrow, free. But, if thou release them not, I will release them in thy despite, by the aid of God the Most High.’
When she had read the letter, she said, ‘O Abdallah, I will do nought till I go to my father and show him the mandate of the king of mankind and return to thee in haste.’ So saying, she signed to the earth, which opened, and she disappeared therein, whilst Abdallah’s heart was transported for joy and he said, ‘God advance the Commander of the Faithful!’ As for Saïdeh, she went in to her father and acquainting him with that which had passed, gave him the Khalif’s letter, which he kissed and laid on his head. Then he read it and said, ‘O my daughter, verily, the ordinance of the king of mankind hath course with us and his commandments are executory amongst us, nor can we gainsay him: so go thou and release the two men forthwith and say to them, “Ye are [free] by the intercession of the king of mankind.” For, should he be wroth with us, he would destroy us to the last of us: so do not thou impose on us that whereto we are unable.’
‘O my father,’ said she, ‘if the king of mankind were wroth with us, what could he do with us?’ Quoth he, ‘He hath power over us for several reasons. In the first place, he is a man and hath thus pre-eminence over
