The Caliph went out in disguise to see for himself the condition of his subjects, and his steps led him to the splendid house of a rich merchant called Abu al-Hasan al-Khurasani. The Caliph noticed that all the vessels of the house were stamped with the name of his grandfather al-Mutawakkil, and this stirred his anger. Then he made himself known to the merchant and commanded him to explain how those vessels had come to his house. So the merchant told him his tale, saying that one day there came to his shop a slave girl than whom he had never in his life seen one more beautiful; and after she had made sure of him that he was Abu al-Hasan al-Khurasani, she asked him to weigh out for her three hundred dinars. He ordered his servant to weigh out the sum for her, and handed it over without asking her about her business. No sooner had she taken the money than she went her way, while Abu al-Hasan was so taken with the magic of her beauty that he only woke from his daze after she had vanished from his sight. He ordered his servant to follow her, to learn who she was and what her business might be; but the servant soon came back empty-handed, after she had dealt

him a slap that left its mark upon his face.

A month passed, and behold, the slave girl came again and asked for another three hundred dinars. Abu al-Hasan had no strength to refuse the request, so she took the sum and went back the way she had come, without his breathing a word. After a month and part of a month, the beauty returned for the third time and asked for five hundred dinars, and she had what she wished; but this time Abu al-Hasan followed her, until she turned in at a jeweler's shop, where she bought herself a precious necklace of jewels whose price came to a thousand dinars. And since she had of the price only the five hundred dinars she had taken from Abu al-Hasan, he told the jeweler that he himself was ready to pay him the rest. The slave girl took the necklace and walked toward the Tigris, our friend following her like one spellbound, so great was his infat-uation with her; until, when she reached the bank of the river, she boarded a boat that stood waiting to carry her to the opposite shore, and our friend went on following her with his eyes in spite of himself, until she alighted before the Caliph's palace and entered it.

Then he knew that she was one

of the beauties of the palace and of the Caliph's favorites. And how was he to win her, she being one of the Caliph's slave girls, when short of his desire lay sudden death? So he retraced his steps, sad and downcast, and passed his night the companion of sleeplessness and the ally of wasting passion.

Now Abu al-Hasan had a client and friend whom the years and their turns had endowed with experience and wisdom; so he went to him and disclosed to him his secret, in the hope that he might help him to attain his desire and lighten the force of his pas-sion by some stratagem. And so it came about: this man made him known to a servant of the slave girl's, and the servant contrived for him a stratagem for reaching the Caliph's palace. He dressed him in a shirt woven of gold and in one of the Caliph's robes, and perfumed him with scents until he became the very likeness of the Caliph, and directed him in the way he must take to reach the room of Shajarat al-Durr.

And when night had let down its curtains, Abu al-Hasan began counting the doors of the slave girls' rooms one by one; but when he reached the middle of the way, he heard a great commotion and