Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/270

238 do thou inform us.’ ‘Ask what thou wilt,’ answered Dahish and the Sheikh said, ‘Are there hereabouts any of the Afrits imprisoned in vessels of brass in the time of Solomon, on whom be peace?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the genie; ‘there be such in the sea of El Kerker, on the shores whereof dwell a people of the lineage of Noah, on whom be peace; for their country was not reached by the Deluge and they are cut off there from the [other] sons of Adam.’ ‘And which,’ asked Abdussemed, ‘is the way to the City of Brass and the place wherein are the vessels of Solomon, and what distance is there between us and it?’ Quoth the Afrit, ‘It is near at hand,’ and directed them in the way thither.

So they left him and fared on till there appeared to them, afar off, a great blackness and therein two fires facing one another, and the Amir Mousa said to the Sheikh, ‘What is yonder vast blackness and its twin fires?’ ‘Rejoice, O Amir,’ answered the guide; ‘for this is the City of Brass, as it is described in the Book of Hidden Treasures. Its walls are of black stone and it hath two towers of Andalusian brass, which appear to the beholder in the distance as they were twin fires, and hence is it named the City of Brass.’

Then they fared on without ceasing till they drew near the city and saw it as it were a piece of a mountain or a mass of iron cast in a mould. So they lighted down and sought for a gate, but saw none neither found any trace of opening in the walls, albeit there were five-and-twenty gates to the city, but none of them was visible from without. Then said the Amir, ‘O Sheikh, I see no sign of any gate to this city;’ and he answered, saying, ‘O Amir, thus is it described in my Book of Hidden Treasures; it hath five-and-twenty gates, but none thereof may be opened save from within the city.’ ‘And how,’ asked Mousa, ‘shall we do to enter the city and view its