Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/222

194 el Feyyaz.’ So Suleiman called for Ikrimeh, who approached and saluted him as Khalif; and the prince bade him welcome and making him draw near to his sitting-place, said to him, ‘O Ikrimeh, thy good deed to him hath brought thee nought but trouble. But now write in a scroll all thy needs and that which thou desirest.’ He did so and the Khalif commanded to do all that he asked and that forthright. Moreover, he gave him ten thousand dinars and twenty chests of clothes over and above that he sought, and calling for a spear, tied him an ensign [and made him governor] over Armenia and Azerbijan and Mesopotamia, saying, ‘Khuzeimeh’s case is in thy hands; if thou wilt, continue him in his office, and if thou wilt, depose him.’ And Ikrimeh said, ‘Nay, but I restore him to his office, O Commander of the Faithful.’ Then they went out from him and ceased not to be governors under Suleiman ben Abdulmelik all the days of his Khalifate. YOUNUS THE SCRIBE AND THE KHALIF WELID BEN SEHL.

There lived in the reign of the Khalif Hisham a noted [man of letters] called Younus the Scribe, and he set out one day on a journey to Damascus, having with him a slave-girl of surpassing beauty and grace, whom he had taught all that was needful to her and whose price was a hundred thousand dirhems. When they drew near Damascus, the caravan halted by the side of a lake and Younus went aside with his damsel and took out some victual he had with him and a leather bottle of wine. As he sat at meat, there came up a young man of goodly presence and dignified aspect, mounted on a sorrel horse and followed by two servants, and said to him, ‘Wilt thou accept me to guest?’ ‘Yes,’ answered Younus. So the stranger alighted and said, ‘Give me to drink of thy wine.’ Younus gave him to