The guards whom the king had ordered to search for Ganem, came and told him their search had been vain.  He was fully convinced of this; the tears of those two women would not leave him any room to doubt.  It distracted him to be obliged to execute the caliph’s order.  “My good lady,” said he to Ganem’s mother, “quit this monument with your daughter, it is no place of safety for you.”  They went out, and he, to secure them against any insult, took off his own robe, and covered them both with it, bidding them keep close to him.  He then ordered the populace to be let in to plunder, which was performed with the utmost rapaciousness, and with shouts which terrified Ganem’s mother and sister the more, because they knew not the reason.  The rabble carried off the richest goods, chests full of wealth, fine Persian and Indian carpets, cushions covered with cloth of gold and silver, fine China ware; in short, all was taken away, till nothing remained but the bare walls of the house:  and it was a dismal spectacle for the unhappy ladies, to see all their goods plundered, without knowing why they were so cruelly treated.

When the house was plundered, Mahummud ordered the civil magistrate to raze the house and monument; and while that was doing, he carried away the mother and daughter to his palace.  There it was he redoubled their affliction, by acquainting them with the caliph’s will.  “He commands me,” said he to them, “to cause you to be stripped, and exposed naked for three days to the view of the people.  It is with the utmost reluctance that I execute such a cruel and ignominious sentence.”  The king delivered these words with such an air, as plainly made it appear his heart was really pierced with grief and compassion.  Though the fear of being dethroned prevented his following the dictates of his pity, yet he in some measure moderated the rigour of the caliph’s orders, by causing large shifts, without sleeves, to be made of coarse horse-hair for Ganem’s mother, and his sister.

The next day, these two victims of the caliph’s rage were stripped of their clothes, and their horse-hair shifts put upon them; their head-dress was also taken away, so that their dishevelled hair hung floating on their backs.  The daughter had the finest hair, and it hung down to the ground.  In this condition they were exposed to the people.  The civil magistrate, attended by his officers, were along with them, and they were conducted through the city.  A crier went before them, who every now and then cried, “This is the punishment due to those who have drawn on themselves the indignation of the commander of the believers.”