Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/400

370 advance] for thy [void] oath,’ rejoined she. Then said he, ‘What five things did God create, before He made man?’ And she replied, ‘Water and earth and light and darkness and the fruits [of the earth].’ (Q.) ‘What did God create with the hand of omnipotence?’ (A.) ‘The empyreal heaven and the tree Touba and Adam and the garden of Eden; these God created with the hand of His omnipotence; but to all other created things He said, “Be,”—and they were.’ (Q.) ‘Who is thy father in Islam?’ (A.) ‘Mohammed, whom God bless and preserve!’ (Q.) ‘Who was the father [in Islam] of Mohammed?’ (A.) ‘Abraham the Friend of God.’ (Q.) ‘What is the Faith of Islam?’ (A.) ‘The professing that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is the apostle of God.’ (Q.) ‘What is thy first and thy last?’ (A.) ‘My first is troubled water and my last filthy carrion. The first of me is dust and the last dust. Quoth the poet:

(Q.) ‘What thing was it, whose first [state] was wood and its last life?’ (A.) ‘Moses’ rod, when he cast it on the ground and it became, by permission of God, a writhing serpent.’ (Q.) ‘What is the meaning of the verse in the Koran, “And I have other need [or occasion] for it”?’ (A.) ‘He [Moses] was wont to plant his staff in the ground, and it would flower and fruit and shade