With these words he took a dagger from his bosom, and plunged it into the heart of the beautiful Gulhyndi. For an instant he held his daughter, who was now pale in his arms, looked at her, and then laid her gently on the ground. He now took a blue silk cord, put it round his neck, drew it tight without trembling, and thus voluntarily cut short his days, faithful to his pride and implacability.
The following morning the caliph went for Hussain and Gulhyndi; only their corpses were found. Ali shed many tears on the pale face of his Gulhyndi, but they could not wake her. It being a custom with the Mohammedans to bury their dead three hours after their decease, Hussain and his daughter were deposited immediately in a burial vault outside of the city, whither Ali followed his beloved. When all had retired, he alone continued sitting in the burying-ground, on her tomb. In the clear night, when the moon illumined the tomb, he said, after a deep silence: “I must see her once more; the sacred moon shall once more shine upon her in my arms, before her beautiful body is reduced to dust.” As he said these words, he saw something moving in the high grass between the graves. In hopes that it was the grave-digger, he went near, to ask him to lift the stone from the tomb. On approaching quite close, he discovered that it was Lockman, and shuddered at meeting this little monster on so sacred a spot. By the pale moonlight he appeared to him more hideous and fiend-like than formerly. “What are you doing here?” he asked him.
“I assist my master, as I am ever wont to do.”
“I no longer want your assistance; you are the cause of her misfortune and her death; you seduced me to see her; without me she would still live and be happy.”
“Would you rather wish never to have seen her?”
“Go call the grave-digger, and then go home.”
“The grave-digger is from home; I know what you want, and can afford you better assistance than he.”
“You shall not move the stone from the grave.”
“That would be of little use, for she is not in it.”
“She is with Allah, but her body is there. I have myself lowered the coffin into the vault, and have never since left the spot.”