this decline of fortune and this disjunciton of favour, and at the ending thereof thou shalt see wonders therein."[FN#315] Ja’afar replied, “Not until I shall have laid a charge upon my Harim;"[FN#316] but Yahya cried, “Enter not these doors, hie thee at once to Al-Sham, for even so ’tis determined by Destiny.”  Accordingly the Wazir gave ear to his sire, and taking a bag containing one thousand dinars and slinging on his sword farewelled him; then, mounting a she-mule, alone and unattended by slave or page, he rode off and he ceased not riding for ten days full-told until he arrived at the Marj[FN#317] or mead of Damascus.  Now it so fortuned that on that same day Attaf,[FN#318] a fair youth and a well-known of the “Smile of the Prophet,” and one of the noblest and most generous of her sons, had pitched tents and had spread a banquet outside the city, where chancing to sight Ja’afar mounted on his beast, he knew him to be a wayfarer passing by, and said to his slaves, “Call to me yonder man!” They did his bidding and the stranger rode up to the party of friends, and dismounting from his mule saluted them with the salam which they all returned.  Then they sat for a while[FN#319] after which Attaf arose and led Ja’afar to his house companied by all the company which was there and they paced into a spacious open hall and seated themselves in converse for an hour full-told.  Anon the slaves brought them to a table spread with the evening meal and bearing more than ten several manners of meat.  So they ate and were cheered, and after the guests had washed hands, the eunuchs and attendants brought in candles of honey-coloured wax that shed a brilliant light, and presently the musicians came in band and performed a right royal partition while the servants served up conserves for dessert.  So they ate, and when they had eaten their sufficiency they drank coffee;[FN#320] and finally, at their ease and in their own good time, all the guests arose and made obeisance and fared homewards.  Then Attaf and Ja’afar sat at table for an hour or so, during which the host offered his guest an hundred greetings, saying, “All kinds of blessings have descended from Heaven upon our heads.  Tell me, how was it thou honouredst us, and what was the cause of thy coming and of thy favouring us with thy footsteps?"[FN#321] So Ja’afar disclosed to him his name and office[FN#322] and told him the reasons of his ride to Damascus from the beginning to the end full and detailed, whereto Attaf rejoined, “Tarry with me an thou please a decade of years; and grieve not at all, for thy Worship is owner of this place.”  After this the eunuchs came in and spread for Ja’afar bedding delicately wrought at the head of the hall and its honour-stead, and disposed other sleeping-gear alongside thereof, which seeing the Wazir said to himself, “Haply my host is a bachelor, that they would spread his bed to my side; however, I will venture the question.”  Accordingly he addressed his host saying, “O