[348]. The Moslem’s Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.
[349]. A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called Máriyah (Maria, Mary) a non-Moslem name.
[350]. i.e. day and night, for ever.
[351]. Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a “revelation” concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superstitiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the “Commandment of Allah.” It is hard to believe that a man could act honestly after such fashion; but we have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible. Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.
[352]. i.e. darkened behind him.
[353]. Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
[354]. Arab. “Arzi-há” = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.
[355]. The king’s own tribe.
[356]. i.e. he was always “spoiling for a fight.”
[357]. In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.