Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the astronomer said, “Now tell me what four contraries are based upon other four contraries?” Replied she, “The four qualities of Caloric and Frigoric, Humidity and Siccity; for of heat Allah created fire, whose nature is hot-dry; of dryness, earth, which is cold-dry; of cold, water, which is cold-wet; of moisture, air, which is hot-wet. Moreover, He created twelve Signs of the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces; and appointed them of the four humours; three fiery, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius; three earthy, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn; three airy, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius; and three watery, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.” Hereupon the astronomer rose, and saying, “Bear witness against me that she is more learned than I,” away he went beaten. Then quoth the Caliph, “Where is the philosopher[[429]]?”; at which one rose hastily and came forward and said to Tawaddud, “What is Time and what be its limits, and its days, and what things bringeth it?” Replied she, “Time is a term applied to the hours of the night and day, which are but the measures of the courses of the sun and moon in their several heavens, even as Allah Almighty telleth us when he saith, ‘A sign to them also is the Night, from which we strip off the day, and lo! they are plunged in darkness, and the Sun runneth to her place of rest; this is the ordinance of the Sublime, the All-knowing.’”[[430]] (¿) “How cometh unbelief to the son of Adam?”—It is reported of the Apostle (whom Allah bless and preserve!) that he said, ‘Unbelief in a man runneth as the blood runneth in his veins, when he revileth the world and Time and night and the Hour.’ And again, ‘Let none of you revile Time, for Time is God;’ neither revile the world, for she saith, May Allah not aid him who revileth me! neither revile the hour, for, ‘The Hour is surely coming, there is no doubt thereof’;[[431]] neither revile the earth, for it is a portent, according to the saying of the Most High, ‘Out of the ground have we created you, and into the same will we cause you to return, and we will bring you forth yet thence another time.’[[432]] (¿) “What are the five that ate and drank, yet came not out of loins nor womb?”—Adam and Simeon[[433]] and Salih’s she-camel[[434]] and Ishmael’s ram and the bird that Abu Bakr the Truth-teller saw in the cave.[[435]] (¿) “Tell me of five that are in Paradise and are neither humans, Jinns nor angels?”—Jacob’s wolf and the Seven Sleepers’ dog and Esdras’s ass and Salih’s camel and Duldul the mule of the Prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace!). (¿) “What man prayed a prayer neither on earth nor in heaven?”—Solomon, when he prayed on his carpet, borne by the wind. (¿) “Ree me this riddle:—A man once looked at a handmaid during dawn-prayer, and she was unlawful to him; but, at noonday she became lawful to him: by mid-afternoon, she was again unlawful, but at sundown, she was lawful to him: at supper time she was a third time unlawful, but by daybreak, she became once more lawful to him.”—This was a man who looked at another’s slave-girl in the morning, and she was then unlawful to him; but at midday he bought her, and she became lawful to him: at mid-afternoon he freed her, and she became unlawful to him; but at sundown he married her and she was again lawful to him. At nightfall he divorced her and she was then a third time unlawful to him; but, next morning at daybreak, he took her back, and she became once more lawful to him. (¿) “Tell me what tomb went about with him that lay buried therein?”—Jonah’s whale, when it had swallowed him. (¿) “What spot of lowland is it, upon which the sun shone once, but will never again shine till Judgment-Day?”—The bottom of the Red Sea, when Moses smote it with his staff, and the sea clave asunder in twelve places, according to the number of the tribes;[[436]] then the sun shone on the bottom and will do so nevermore until Judgment-Day.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the philosopher then addressed the damsel saying, “What was the first skirt that trailed over the face of the earth?” She replied, “That of Hagar, out of shame before Sarah; and it became a custom among the Arabs.” (¿) “What is that which breatheth without life?”—Quoth Almighty Allah, ‘By the morning when it breatheth!’[[437]] (¿) “Ree me this riddle:—A number of pigeons came to a high tree and lighted, some on the tree and others under it. Said those on the tree to those on the ground:—If one of you come up to us, ye will be a third part of us all in number; and if one of us descend to you, we shall be like unto you in number. How many pigeons were there in all?”—Twelve: seven alighted on the tree and five beneath; and, if one go up, those above would be eight to four; and, if one go down, both would be six and Allah is all-knowing.[[438]] With this the philosopher put off his clothes and fled: whereupon the next contest took place, for she turned to the Olema present and said, “Which of you is the rhetorician that can discourse of all arts and sciences?” There came forward a sage hight Ibrahim bin Siyyár and said to her, “Think me not like the rest.” Quoth she, “It is the more assured to me that thou wilt be beaten, for that thou art a boaster; and Allah will help me to victory over thee, that I may strip thee of thy clothes. So, if thou sentest one to fetch thee wherewithal to cover thyself, ‘twould be well for thee.” Cried he, “By Allah, I will assuredly conquer thee and make thee a byword among the peoples, generation after generation!” Rejoined she, “Do penance in advance for thy broken oath.” Then he asked, “What five things did Allah create before he made man?”; and she answered, “Water and earth and light and darkness and the fruits of the earth.” (¿) “What did Allah create with the hand of omnipotence?”—The ‘Arsh, throne of God or the empyreal heaven and the tree Túbá[[439]] and Adam and the garden of Eden; these Allah created with the hand of His omnipotence; but to all other created things He said, “Be,”—and they were. (¿) “Who is thy father in Al-Islam?”—Mohammed, whom Allah bless and preserve! (¿) “Who was the father in Al-Islam of Mohammed?”—Abraham, the Friend of God. (¿) “What is the Faith of Al-Islam?”—The professing that there is no God but the God and that Mohammed is the apostle of God. (¿) “What is thy first and thy last?”—My first is man’s seed in the shape of foul water and my last filthy carrion: the first of me is dust and the last of me is dust. Quoth the poet:—
Of dust was I created, and man did I become, ✿ In question ever ready and aye fluent in reply,
Then, I unto the dust return’d, became of it again, ✿ For that, in very deed, of dust at first create was I.
He continued, “What thing was it, whose first state was wood and its last life?”—Moses’ staff,[[440]] when he cast it on the valley-ground and it became, by permission of Allah, a writhing serpent. (¿) “What is the meaning of the word of the Lord, ‘And I have other occasion for it?’”[[441]]—He, Moses, was wont to plant his staff in the ground, and it would flower and fruit and shade him from the heat and from the cold. Moreover, it would carry him when he was weary, and whilst he slept guard his sheep from lions and wild beasts. (¿) “What woman was born of a man alone and what man of a woman alone?”—Eve of Adam and Jesus of Mary.[[442]] (¿) “Tell me of the four fires, what fire eateth and drinketh; what fire eateth but drinketh not; what fire drinketh but eateth not and what other neither eateth nor drinketh?”—The fire of the world eateth but drinketh not; the fire which eateth and drinketh is Hell-fire; the fire of the sun drinketh but eateth not, and the fire of the moon neither eateth nor drinketh. (¿) “Which is the open door and which the shut?”—The Traditional Ordinances are the open door, the Koranic the shut door. (¿) “Of what doth the poet speak, when he saith:—
And dweller in the tomb whose food is at his head, ✿ When he eateth of that meat, of words he waxeth fain:
He riseth and he walketh and he talketh without tongue; ✿ And returneth to the tomb where his kith and kin are lain.
No living wight is he, yet in honour he abides; ✿ Nor dead yet he deserveth that Allah him assain.”