Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/290

 awhile without seeing him raise his head; so I shook him and behold, he was indeed dead, the mercy of Almighty Allah be upon him! I laid him out stretching his arms and legs and looked at him, and lo! he was smiling. Moreover, whiteness had got the better of blackness on his brow, and his face was radiant with light like a young moon. As we wondered at his case, the door opened and a young man came in to us and said, 'Peace be with you! May Allah make great our reward and yours for our brother Maymun! Here is his shroud: wrap him in it.' So saying, he gave us two robes, never had we seen the like of them, and we shrouded him therein. And now his tomb is a place whither men resort to pray for rain and ask their requirements of Allah (be He extolled and exalted!); and how excellently well saith the poet on this theme,

'The heart of Gnostic [FN#472] homed in heavenly Garth * Heaven decks, and Allah's porters aid afford. Lo! here they drink old wine commingled with * Tasním, [FN#473] the wine of union with the Lord. Safe is the secret 'twixt the Friend and them; * Safe from all hearts but from that Heart adored.'"

And they recount another anecdote of

THE DEVOUT TRAY-MAKER AND HIS WIFE.

There was once, among the Children of Israel, a man of the worthiest, who was strenuous in the service of his Lord and abstained from things worldly and drave them away from his heart. He had a wife who was a helpmate meet for him and who was at all times obedient to him. They earned their living by making trays [FN#474] and fans, whereat they wrought all through the