'When Solymon heard these words, he drew his cimitar, and by one blow destroyed the work of the Genii, and it vanished with a whistling sound. He chastised the beautiful Jerada by shutting her up in a tower, on the door of which he placed his magic seal; and then he went out into a wild and desert place, where he wept over the evils that had followed the fall of Sidon, and made supplications to Allah, crying aloud, as the blessed Koran tells us,
'"Oh forgive me, and accord unto me a kingdom which may not be obtained by any one after me, for thou art the giver of thrones."[*]
[*] See "Koran," xxxviii.
'But Allah resolved to chastise his negligence, and it happened thus:—
It was the custom of this great sultan, when he bathed or perfumed himself, to intrust his magic ring or signet, on the possession of which depended all his power and his kingdom, to one of his fairest favourites; and one day, when retiring to the bath, he placed it on the finger of Jerada, for with all his wisdom the wisest man—yea, even Solymon—may be but a fool before a beautiful woman. Jerada, as she gazed upon the ring, thought of her aged sire and fallen Sidon—of his nameless grave and her fallen fortune, and uttered a wish for "vengeance."
At that moment there was a tremulous motion in the air, and the Geni Sakhur, the friend of her father—the spirit who had built the great tower which yet stands upon the mountain over against Sidon, appeared before her in the likeness of Solymon, and received from her the wonderful ring. Then the eyes of the Geni sparkled with triumph; he breathed upon it, and lo! when the Sultan came from the bath, he was an old and withered man, so changed in aspect that none knew him; and then, mocked by the courtiers, threatened by Asaf the vizier, hooted by the pages and beaten by the guards, he was driven from the palace gates, and forced to wander in the desert, eating dates, berries, and wild fruits for the space of forty days, returning ever and anon to beg alms at the gates of Mecca, and at the porticos of his own palace.
'Here he saw the Geni Sakhur, on the terraces and in the gardens, clad in his royal garments, wearing his likeness and having his voice, toying with the lovely Jerada and the most beautiful of the ladies, who crowded his magnificent household, and the pious soul of this king—the mightiest that ever swayed the sceptre of Assyria—swelled with futile rage, for his ring was on Sakhur's finger, and he was powerless as the meanest slave.
'Moreover, this evil Geni, by the power of which he became possessed, governed the whole kingdom, and while seated on its throne, made such startling alterations in the laws, that Solyman, when he heard them proclaimed by sound of trumpet and timbrel at the brazen gates of Mecca, rent his garments and wept, while the astonished Asaf threw dust upon his head and beard in grief and wonder.
'At length the forty days, the exact period during which the waxen image had been worshipped under Solymon's roof, were expired; and then the devil Sakhur, with a yell of laughter, sprang from the throne on which he had been seated, with Jerada by his side, and to the terror of the faithful Vizier Asaf, and of all the courtiers, spread out his dusky wings, and ascending straight into the air, flew away with a speed that made him cleave the sky like a bird; and as he winged his way to the home of the Genii in the mountains of Kaf, he flung the magic ring of Solymon into the sea of Galilee.
'As it cleft the deep blue waters, its glittering stones and shining gold caught the eye of a large and silvery fish, which immediately swallowed it; but soon thereafter the fish began to writhe in great agony, and was cast by the ebbing tide upon the yellow sands near the then ruined and desolate city of Sidon.