Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/123

101 this mighty Lord may accept of me?’ ‘Say,’ replied Gherib, ‘“There is no god but God and Abraham the Friend is the Apostle of God!”’ So he repeated the profession of the faith and was written of the people of felicity. Then said Gherib, ‘Hast thou tasted the sweetness of Islam?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the other; and Gherib said, ‘Loose his bonds.’ So they unbound him and he kissed the earth before Gherib and his feet.

At this moment they espied a great cloud of dust, that spread tilledtill [sic] it walled the world, and Gherib bade Sehim go and see what it was. So he went off, like a bird in full flight, and presently returning, said, ‘O King of the age, it is the Benou Aamir, the comrades of Jemrcan.’ Whereupon quoth Gherib to the latter, ‘Ride out to thy people and expound to them Islam, and if they profess, they shall be saved; but, if they refuse, we will put them to the sword.’ So Jemrcan mounted and spurring towards his tribesmen, cried out to them; and they knew him and dismounting, came up to him on foot and said, ‘We rejoice in thy safety, O our lord!’ ‘O folk,’ said he, ‘whoso obeyeth me shall be saved; but whoso gainsayeth me, I will cut him in twain with this sabre.’ And they made answer, saying, ‘Command us what thou wilt, for we will not gainsay thy commandment.’ Quoth he, ‘Then say with me, “There is no god but God and Abraham is the Friend of God!”’ ‘O our lord,’ asked they, ‘whence hast thou these words?’ And he told them what had befallen him, adding, ‘O folk, know ye not that I am your chief and foremost among you in the field and stead of war, and yet a single man took me prisoner and made me quaff the cup of humiliation?’

When they heard his speech, they spoke the word of Unity, and Jemrcan led them to Gherib, at whose hands they affirmed their profession and wished him glory and victory, after they had kissed the earth before him. Gherib