Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/149

125 Then he cast them into prison and calling a hundred Marids, bade them bring much firewood and set fire thereto. So they brought great plenty of wood and made a huge fire, which flamed up mightily till the morning, when Muraash mounted an elephant, bearing on its back a throne of gold set with jewels, and the tribes of the Jinn gathered about him, in their various kinds. Then they brought in Gherib and Sehim, who, seeing the flaming of the fire, sought help of the One God, the All-conquering Creator of night and day, Him who is mickle of might, whom no sight comprehendeth, but who comprehendeth all sights, for He is the Subtle, the All-knowing; and they ceased not to solicit Him, till, behold, a cloud arose from West to East and pouring down showers of rain, like the swollen sea, quenched the fire.

When the King saw this, he was affrighted, he and his troops, and entered the palace, where he turned to his Vizier and grandees and said to them, ‘How say ye of these two men?’ ‘O King,’ answered they, ‘were they not in the right, this thing had not befallen the fire; wherefore we say that they speak sooth.’ ‘Indeed,’ rejoined Muraash, ‘the truth hath been shown forth to me, ay, and the manifest way, and I am certified that the worship of the fire is false; for, were it [god and] mistress, it had warded off from itself the rain that quenched it and the stone that broke its brasier and beat it into ashes. Wherefore I believe in Him Who created the fire and the light and the shade and the heat. And ye, what say ye?’ ‘O King,’ answered they, ‘we also hear and follow and obey.’

So the King called for Gherib and Sehim and embraced them and kissed them between the eyes; whereupon the bystanders all crowded to kiss their hands and heads. Then Muraash sat down on the throne of his kingship and seating Gherib on his right and Sehim on his left hand, said to them, ‘O mortals, what shall we say, that we