The same story is differently told, at greater length and with considerable humour, in Nakhshabi’s Parrot-Book, but the outline of it only can be given here:  A rich merchant named Abd-el-Malik resolved to give all his substance to the poor and needy before he departed this life.  At midnight an apparition stood before him in the habit of a fakir and thus addressed him:  “I am the apparition of thy good fortune and the genius of thy future happiness.[FN#397] When thou, with such unbounded generosity, didst bequeath all thy wealth to the poor, I determined not to pass by thy door unnoticed, but to enrich thee with an inexhaustible treasure, suitable to the greatness of thy capacious soul.  To accomplish which I will every morning in this shape appear to thee; thou shalt strike me a few blows on the head, and I shall instantly fall at thy feet, transformed into an image of gold.  From this take as much as thou shalt have occasion for; and every member that shall be separated from the image shall instantly be replaced by another of the same precious metal."[FN#398] In the morning a covetous neighbour named Hajm visited the merchant, and soon after the apparition presented itself.  Abd-el-Malik at once arose and after striking it several blows on the head with a stick, it fell down and was changed into an image of gold.  He took what sufficed for the day’s needs and gave the larger portion to his visitor.  When Hajm the covetous returned to his own house he pondered what he had seen, and concluding it would be as easy for him to convert fakirs into gold, invited to a feast at his house all the fakirs of the province.  When they had feasted to their hearts’ content, Hajm seized a heavy club and began to unmercifully belabour his guests till he broke their heads and “the crimson torrent stained the carpet of hospitality.”  The cries of the fakirs soon brought the police to their assistance, and a great crowd of people gathered outside the house.  Hajm was immediately haled before the magistrate, and attempted to justify his conduct by giving an account of what he had seen done in the house of Abd-el-Malik.  The merchant was sent for and declared Hajm to be mad, no better proof of which could be desired than his treatment of the fakirs.  So Hajm the covetous was sent forthwith to the hospital for lunatics.

Khudadad and His Brothers—­p. 145.

Readers of The Nights must have observed that a large number of the tales begin with an account of a certain powerful king, whose dominions were almost boundless, whose treasury overflowed, and whose reign was a blessing to his people; but he had one all-absorbing care—­he had no son.  Thus in the tale of Khudadad we read that in the city of Harran there dwelt a sultan “of illustrious lineage, a protector of the people, a lover of his lieges, a friend of mankind, and renowned for being gifted with every good quality.  Allah Almighty had bestowed upon him all that his heart could desire, save the boon of a child, for though he had lovely