which there appeared sparks of fire.  He was black and tall; and he was crying out, Extolled be the perfection of my Lord, who hath appointed me this severe affliction and painful torture until the day of resurrection!  When the party beheld him, their reason fled from them, and they were stupefied at the sight of his form, and retreated in flight; and the Emeer Moosa said to the sheykh ’Abd-Es-Samad, What is this?  He answered, I know not what he is.  And the Emeer said, Draw near to him, and investigate his case:  perhaps he will discover it, and perhaps thou wilt learn his history.  The sheykh ’Abd-Es-Samad replied, May God amend the state of the Emeer!  Verily we fear him.—­Fear ye not, rejoined the Emeer; for he is withheld from injuring you and others by the state in which he is.  So the sheykh ’Abd-Es-Samad drew near to him, and said to him, O thou person, what is thy name, and what is thy nature, and what hath placed thee here in this manner?  And he answered him, As to me, I am an ’Efreet of the Jinn, and my name is Dahish the son of El-Amash, and I am restrained here by the majesty, confined by the power, [of God,] tormented as long as God (to whom be ascribed might and glory!) willeth.  Then the Emeer Moosa said, O sheykh ’Abd-Es-Samad, ask him what is the cause of his confinement in this pillar.  He therefore asked respecting that, and the ’Efreet answered him, Verily my story is wonderful, and it is this: 

     [The Evil Spirit narrates to them his history, being part of
     the famous war between Solomon and the Jinn.]

The party therefore wondered at him, and at the horrible nature of his form; and the Emeer Moosa said, There is no deity but God!  Suleyman was endowed with a mighty dominion!—­And the sheykh ’Abd-Es-Samad said to the ’Efreet, O thou, I ask thee concerning a thing of which do thou inform us.  The ’Efreet replied, Ask concerning what thou wilt.  And the sheykh said, Are there in this place any of the ’Efreets confined in bottles of brass from the time of Suleyman, on whom be peace?  He answered, Yes, in the Sea of El-Karkar, where are a people of the descendants of Nooh (on whom be peace!), whose country the deluge reached not, and they are separated there from [the rest of] the sons of Adam.—­And where, said the sheykh, is the way to the City of Brass, and the place wherein are the bottles?  What distance is there between us and it?  The ’Efreet answered, It is near.  So the party left him and proceeded; and there appeared to them a great black object, with two [seeming] fires corresponding with each other in position, in the distance, in that black object; whereupon the Emeer Moosa said to the sheykh, What is this great black object, and what are these two corresponding fires?  The guide answered him, Be rejoiced, O Emeer; for this is the City of Brass, and this is the appearance of it that I find described in the Book of Hidden Treasures; that its wall is of black stones, and it hath two towers of brass of El-Andalus,