Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/254

 Yes," answered he. Quoth she, "Ask of what thou wilt; success resteth with Allah." So he said, "Tell me of the sun and its rising and setting." And she replied: "Know that the sun riseth from the shadows in the Eastern hemisphere and setteth in the shadows of the Western, and each hemisphere compriseth one hundred and eighty degrees. Quoth Allah Almighty, 'I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West.' [FN#415] And again, 'He it is who hath ordained the sun to shine by day, and the moon for a light by night; and hath appointed her station that ye might know the number of years and the computation of time.' [FN#416] The moon is Sultan of the night and the sun Sultan of the day, and they vie with each other in their courses and follow without overtaking each other. Quoth Almighty Allah, 'It is not expedient that the sun overtake the moon in her course; neither doth the night outstrip the day, but each of these luminaries moveth in a peculiar orbit.'" [FN#417] Q "When the day cometh, what becometh of the night; and what of the day, when the night cometh?" "He causeth the night to enter in upon the day, and He causeth the day to enter in upon the night." [FN#418] Q "Enumerate to me the mansions of the moon?" [FN#419] "They number eight-and-twenty, to wit, Sharatán, Butayn, Surayá, Dabarán, Hak'ah, Han'ah, Zirá'a, Nasrah, Tarf, Jabhah, Zubrah, Sarfah, 'Awwá, Simák, Ghafar, Zubání, Iklíl, Kalb, Shaulah, Na'am, Baldah, Sa'ad al-Zábih, Sa'ad al-Bul'a, Sa'ad al-Su'úd, Sa'ad al-Akhbiyah, Fargh the Former and Fargh the Latter; and Risháa. They are disposed in the order of the letters of the Abjad-hawwaz or older alphabet, [FN#420]