a deep well, and fastened him there, saying, “Remain here, till I come back.”  She then left him, and went to the great hall of the King, where the divan was already assembled, and the King had taken his seat on the throne.  All rose up when she entered, and when she had seated herself, the King said to her, “O mother, did you not hear the blast of the horn yesterday, and why did you not come out with us?” “I did hear it,” she replied, “but I did not heed it.”  “But you know,” said he, “that the sound can only be heard upon the arrival of the stranger who desires to take the book.”  “I know it, O King; but permit me to choose forty men from among those assembled here.”  She did so, and selected ten from among the forty again.  She then said to them, “Take a Trakhtramml (sandboard on which the Arabs practise geomancy and notation) and look and search.”  They did so, but had scarcely finished when they looked at each other in amazement.  They destroyed their calculation, and began a second, and confused this, too, and began a third, upon which they became quite confounded.  “What are you doing there?” asked the King at last.  “You go on working and obliterating your work; what have you discovered?” “O King,” replied they, “we find that the stranger has entered the town, but not by any gate.  He appears to have passed in between Heaven and earth, like a bird.  After this, a fish swallowed him, and carried him down into some dark water.”  “Are you fools?” asked the King angrily; and turning to Alka, continued, “Have you ever seen a man flying between Heaven and earth, and afterwards swallowed by a fish, which descends with him into dark water?” “O King,” replied she, “I always forbid the wise men to eat heavy food, for it disturbs their understanding and weakens their penetration; but they will not heed me.”  At this the King was angry, and immediately drove them from the hall.  But Alka said, “It will be plain to-morrow what has happened.”  She left the hall, and when she reached home, she drew Saif Zul Yezn out of the well, and he dressed himself again.  They sat down, and Alka said, “I have succeeded in confounding their deliberations to-day! and there will be a great assembly to-morrow, when I must hide you in a still more out-of-the-way place.”  After this they supped, and went to rest.  Next morning Alka called her daughter, and said, “Bring me the gazelle.”  When it was brought her, she said, “Bring me the wings of an eagle.”  Taka gave them to her, and she bound them on the back of the gazelle.  She then took a pair of compasses, which she fixed in the ceiling of the room.  She next took two other pairs of compasses, which she fixed in the ceiling of the room.  She next took two other pairs of compasses, and tied one between the fore feet, and the other between the hind feet of the gazelle.  She then tied a rope to the compasses in the roof, and the two ends to the other pairs.  But she made Saif Zul Yezn lie down in such a position that his head was between the feet of the gazelle.