“And I wept sore, and made great intercession.  And it was agreed that there should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry Zarah, I should be free of her.  And I promised all my substance to any one who would do this, and no one was found.  And she was offered to thirteen criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death.  And at the last I was constrained to marry her.  And truly I have now the comfort of thinking that if I have offended by encouraging Abdallah’s deceits, or otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she was herself translated thither.  And respecting the manner of her translation, inquire not thou too curiously.  It was doubtless a token of the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.

“As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife, which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again appeared before me.

“‘Hast thou come,’ said I, ’to solicit me to abet thee in any new imposture?  Know, once for all, that I will not.’

“‘On the contrary,’ said he, ’I am come to set thee at ease by proving to thee that I shall not again require thy assistance.  Follow me.’

“And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen and footmen, more than I could number.  And they bore banners on which the name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold.  And in the midst was an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad’s camel, or cow.  And by this was a great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more and more upon the heap.

“‘How many?’ asked Abdallah.

“‘Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,’ answered they, ’but there are more to come.’

“‘Thou monster!’ said I to Abdallah.

“‘Nay, father,’ said he, ’there will not be more than sixteen thousand in all, and these men were unbelievers.  Moreover we have spared such of their women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our concubines, as is ordained in the eleventh supplement to the Book of Ad, just promulgated by my authority.  But come, I have other things to manifest unto thee.’

“And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was chained unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by with lighted torches in their hands.

“‘O Abdallah,’ I exclaimed, ‘wherefore this atrocity?’

“‘This man,’ he replied, ’is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book of Ad is written on the bones of a cow.’

“’But it is written on the bones of a cow!  ’I cried.

“‘Even so,’ said he, ’and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and his punishment the more exemplary.  Had it been indeed written on the bones of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.’