Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/25

7 times to frequent them and sweep the earth from them and keep them clean and visit them and worship God the Most High in them; and they had no food save herbs and the fruits of the earth. Iskender sent a man to them, to bid their king to him, but he refused to come, saying, ‘I have no occasion to him.’ So Iskender went to him and said to him, ‘How is it with you and what manner of folk are you? For I see with you nothing of gold or silver nor aught of the good things of the world.’ ‘None hath his fill of the goods of the world,’ answered the king. ‘Why do you dig your graves before the doors of your houses?’ asked Iskender. ‘That they may be the cynosure of our eyes,’ replied the king, ‘so we may look on them and still take thought unto death neither forget the world to come. Thus is the love of the world banished from our hearts and we are not distracted thereby from the service of our Lord, exalted be His name!’ Quoth Iskender, ‘Why do ye eat herbs?’ And the other answered, ‘Because it misliketh us to make our bellies the tombs of beasts and because the pleasure of eating overpasseth not the gullet.’

Then he brought out a human skull and laying it before Iskender, said to him, ‘O Dhoulkernein, knowest thou whose was this skull?’ ‘Nay,’ answered Iskender; and the other rejoined, ‘He whose skull this is was a king of the kings of the world, who dealt tyrannously with his subjects, oppressing the weak and passing his days in heaping up the perishable goods of the world, till God took his soul and made the fire his abiding-place; and this is his head.’

Then he produced another skull and laying it before Iskender, said to him, ‘Knowest thou this?’ ‘No,’ answered the prince; and the other rejoined, ‘This is the skull of another king, who dealt justly by his subjects and was tenderly solicitous for the people of his realm and his dominions, till God took his soul and lodged him in His