Summary

In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” Cloth merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas addresses the story directly to the Caliph of Baghdad. Once rich but troubled, Fuwaad is now poor and at peace.

One day Fuwaad enters a strange shop in the market and meets its owner-inventor, Bashaarat. Bashaarat shows the skeptical Fuwaad his latest alchemical project: a black metal hoop mounted on a pedestal. The two sides of the hoop are separated by several seconds of time. Bashaarat demonstrates by reaching his hand into the right side of the hoop and emerging with Fuwaad’s ring; when the hand emerges afterward from the left side, Fuwaad grasps it, and it steals his ring. The hoop is merely an initial experiment; Bashaarat leads Fuwaad to a circular doorway made of the same metal. The two sides of this Gate are separated by twenty...