Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/135



==THE CITY OF MANY COLUMNED IRAM AND ABDULLAH SON OF ABI KILABAH. ==

It is related that Abdullah bin Abi Kilábah went forth in quest of a she-camel which had strayed from him; and, as he was wandering in the deserts of Al-Yaman and the district of Sabá, behold, he came upon a great city girt by a vast castle around which were palaces and pavilions that rose high into middle air. He made for the place thinking to find there folk of whom he might ask concerning his she-camel; but, when he reached it, he found it desolate, without a living soul in it. So (quoth he) "I alighted and, hobbling my dromedary,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah continued, "I dismounted and hobbling my dromedary, and composing my mind, entered into the city. Now when I