Chapters 20-24 Summary

When Black visits Enishte in the morning, Enishte expands on the history of the secret book. When he serves as ambassador to Venice, Enishte sees thousands of portraits. Enishte thinks these portraits represent a powerful magic that the Sultan should use. Enishte and the Sultan argue about the possibility of having the Sultan's portrait made in this style, but compromise that the only way to do it without creating a false idol is to conceal the portrait in a book as part of a story. The Sultan plans to offer the book to the Venetians as a gift of peace. Enishte shows Black all the illustrations, except the final one, which he cannot seem to finish. The illustrations are of a tree, a dog, a gold coin, Satan, a horse and a depiction of Death. Enishte also relates the stories that...