Shibli Bagarag knotted the brows of impatience, crying, ’Hast thou forgotten Karaz in thy calculations?  I know of a surety what this Sword will do, and I wot the oil he distilleth strengtheneth Shagpat but against common blades.  Yet shall it not be spoken of me, Shibli Bagarag, that I was tripped by my own conceit; the poet counselleth: 

    “When for any mighty end thou hast the aid of heaven,
     Mount until thy strength shall match those great means which are
     given”: 

nor that I was overthrown in despising mine enemy, forgetful of the saying of the sage: 

    “Read the features of thy foe, wherever he may find thee,
     Small he is, seen face to face, but thrice his size behind thee.”

Wullahy! this Karaz is a Genie of craft and resources, one of a mighty stock, and I must close with Shagpat to be sure of him; and that I am not deceived by semblances, opposing guile with guile, and guile deeper than his, for that he awaiteth it not, thinking I have leaped in fancy beyond the Event, and am puffed by the after-breaths of adulation, I!—­thinking I pluck the blossoms in my hunger for the fruit, that I eat the chick of the yet unlaid egg, O Feshnavat.  As is said, and the warrior beareth witness to the wisdom of it: 

“His weapon I’ll study; my own conceal;
So with two arms to his one shall I deal.”

The same also testifieth: 

“’Tis folly of the hero, though resistless in the field,
To stake the victory on his steel, and fling away the shield.”

And likewise: 

“Examine thine armour in every joint,
For slain was the Giant, and by a pin’s point.”

Wah! ’tis certain there will need subtlety in this undertaking, and a plot plotted, so do thou my bidding, and fail not in the part assigned to thee.’

Now, Feshnavat was persuaded by his words, and cried, ’In diligence, discretion, and the virtues which characterize subordinates, I go, and I delay not!  I will perform the thing required of me, O Master of the Event.’  And he repeated in verse: 

          With danger beset, be the path crooked or narrow,
          Thou art the bow, and I the arrow.

Then embraced he his daughter, kissing her on the forehead and the eyes, and tightening the girdle of his robe, departed, with the name of Allah on his lips, in the direction of the City.

So Shibli Bagarag called to him the two Genii, and his command was, ’Soar, ye slaves of the Sword, till the range of earth and its mountains and seas and deserts are a cluster in the orb of the eye, Shiraz conspicuous as a rose among garlands, and the ruby consorted with other gems in a setting.  In Shiraz or the country adjoining ye will come upon one Baba Mustapha by name; and, if he be alone, ye may recognize him by his forlorn look and the hang of his cheeks, his vacancy as of utter abandonment; if in company, ’twill be the only talker that’s he; seize on him, give him a taste of thin air, and deposit him without speech on the roof of a palace, where ye will see Feshnavat in yonder city:  this do ere the shadows of the palm-tree by the well in the plain move up the mounds that enclose the fortified parts.’