When it was the Four Hundred and Sixty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that hardly had the King made an end of saying to himself, "Eat of this weal at thine ease, in long life and prosperity ever rife!" when a man clad in tattered raiment, with an asker's wallet hanging at his neck, as he were one who came to beg food, knocked with the door-ring a knock so loud and terrible that the whole palace shook as with quake of earth and the King's throne trembled. The servants were affrighted and rushed to the door, and when they saw the man who had knocked they cried out at him, saying, "Woe to thee! what manner of unmannerly fashion be this? Wait till the King eateth and we will then give thee of what is left." Quoth he, "Tell your lord to come out and speak with me, for I have of him a pressing need and a matter to heed." They cried, "Away, fool! who art thou that we should bid our lord come forth to thee?" But he said, "Tell him of this." So they went in and told the King, who said, "Did ye not rebuke him and draw upon him and threaten him!" Now as he spoke, behold, there came another knock at the gate, louder than the first knock, whereupon the servants sprang at the stranger with staves and weapons, to fall upon him and slay him; but he shouted at them, saying, "Bide in your steads, for I am the Angel of Death." Hereat their hearts quaked and their wits forsook them; their understandings were in confusion, their side-muscles quivered in perturbation and their limbs lost the power of motion. Then said the King to them, "Tell him to take a substitute[FN#456] in my place and one to relieve me in this case." But the Angel answered, saying, "I will take no substitute, and I come not but on thine account, to cause separation between thee and the goods thou hast gathered together and the riches thou hast heaped up and entreasured." When the King heard this, he wept and groaned, saying, "Allah curse the treasure which hath deluded and undone me and diverted me from the service of my Lord! I deemed it would profit me, but to-day it is a regret for me and a calamity to me, and behold, I go forth, empty-handed of it, and leave it to my foes." Thereupon Allah caused the Treasure to speak out and it said, "Wherefore cursest thou me?[FN#457] Curse thyself, for Allah created both me and eke thyself of the dust and appointed me to be in thine hand, that thou mightest provide thee with me a viaticum for the next world and give alms with me to the poor and the needy and the sick; and build mosques and hospices and bridges and aqueducts, so might I be an aidance unto thee in the world to come. But thou didst garner me and hoard me up and on thine own vanities bestowedst me, neither gavest thou thanks for me, as was due, but wast ungrateful to me; and now thou must leave me to thy foes and thou hast naught save thy regretting and thy repenting. But what is my sin, that thou shouldest revile me?" Then the Angel of Death took the King's soul as he sat on his throne before he ate of the food, and he fell down dead. Quoth Allah Almighty, "While they were rejoicing for that which had been given them, we suddenly laid hold on them; and, behold, they were seized with despair."[FN#458] And they tell another tale of
THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND THE KING OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.
There was a puissant despot among the Kings of the Banϊ Isrανl, who sat one day upon the throne of his kingship, when he saw come in to him, by the gate of the hall, a man of forbidding aspect and horrible presence. The King was affrighted at his sudden intrusion and his look terrified him; so he sprang up before him and said, "Who art thou, O man? Who gave thee leave to come in to me and who invited thee to enter my house?" Quoth the stranger, "Verily the Lord of the House sent me to thee, nor can any doorkeeper exclude me, nor need I leave to come in to Kings; for I reck not of a Sultan's majesty neither of the multitude of his guards. I am he from whom no tyrant is at rest, nor can any man escape from my grasp: I am the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies." Now when the King heard this a palsy crept over him[FN#459] and he fell on his face in a swoon; but presently coming to himself, he asked, "Art thou then the Angel of Death?"; and the stranger answered, "Yes." "I conjure thee, by Allah," quoth the King, "grant me one single day's respite, that I may pray pardon of my sins and ask absolution of my Lord and restore to their rightful owners the monies which are in my treasures, so I may not be burdened with the woe of a reckoning nor with the misery of punishment therefor." Replied the Angel, "Well-away! well-away! this may be in no way."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Four Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the Death-messenger to the King, "Well-away, well-away! this may be in no way. How can I grant thee a reprieve when the days of thy life are counted and thy breaths numbered and thy moments fixed and written?" "Grant me an hour," asked the King; but the Angel answered saying, "The hour was in the account and hath sped, and thou unheeding aught; and hath fled, and thou taking no thought: and now thy breathings are accomplished, and there remaineth to thee but one breath." Quoth the King, "Who will be with me when I am transported to my tomb?" Quoth the Angel, "Naught will be with thee but thy works good or evil." "I have no works," said the King; and the Angel, "Doubtless thy long home will be in hell-fire and thy doom the wrath of the Almighty." Then he seized the soul of the King, and he fell off his throne and dropped on the earth dead. And there arose a mighty weeping and wailing and clamour of keening for him among the people of his court, and had they known that to which he went of the wrath of his Lord, their weeping for him had been sorer and their wailing louder and more abounding. And a story is told of
ISKANDAR ZU AL-KARNAYN[FN#460] AND A CERTAIN TRIBE OF POOR FOLK.
It is related that Iskandar Zu al-Karnayn[FN#461] once came, in his journeyings, upon a tribe of small folk, who owned naught of the weals of the world and who dug their graves over against the doors of their houses and were wont at all times to visit them and sweep the earth from them and keep them clean and pray at them and worship Almighty Allah at them; and they had no meat save grasses and the growth of the ground. So Iskandar sent a man to summon their King, but he refused to come, saying, "I have no need of him." Thereupon Iskandar went to him and said, "How is it with you and what manner of men are ye?; for I see with you forsooth naught of gold or silver, nor find I with you aught of the weals of the world." Answered the King, "None hath his fill of the weals of the world." Iskandar then asked "Why do you dig your graves before your house-doors?"; and the King answered, "That they may be the prospective of our eye-glances; so we may look on them and ever renew talk and thought of death, neither forget the world to come; and on this wise the love of the world be banished from our hearts and we be not thereby distracted from the service of our Lord, the Almighty." Quoth Iskandar, "Why do ye eat grasses?"; and the other replied, "Because we abhor to make our bellies the tombs of animals and because the pleasure of eating outstrippeth not the gullet." Then putting forth his hand he brought out a skull of a son of Adam and, laying it before Iskandar, said, "O Zu al-Karnayn, Lord of the Two Horns, knowest thou who owned this skull?" Quoth he, "Nay;" and quoth the other, "He who owned this skull was a King of the Kings of the world, who dealt tyrannously with his subjects, specially wronging the weak and wasting his time in heaping up the rubbish of this world, till Allah took his sprite and made the fire his abiding-site; and this is his head." He then put forth his hand and produced another skull and, laying it before Iskandar, said to him, "Knowest thou this?" "No," answered the conqueror; and the other rejoined, "This is the skull of another King, who dealt justly by his lieges and was kindly solicitous for the folk of his realm and his dominions, till Allah took his soul and lodged him in His Garden and made high his degree in Heaven." Then laying his hands on Iskandar's head he said, "Would I knew which of these two art thou." Whereupon Iskandar wept with sore weeping and straining the King to his bosom cried, "If thou be minded to company with me, I will commit to thee as Wazir the government of my affairs and share with thee my kingdom." Cried the other, "Well-away, well-away! I have no mind to this." "And why so?" asked Iskandar, and the King answered, "Because all men are thy foes by reason of the wealth and the worlds thou hast won: while all men are my true friends, because of my contentment and pauperdom, for that I possess nothing, neither covet aught of the goods of life; I have no desire to them nor wish for them, neither reck I aught save contentment." So Iskandar pressed him to his breast and kissed him between the eyes and went his way.[FN#462] And among the tales they tell is one concerning
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF KING ANUSHIRWAN.[FN#463]
It is told of Anushirwan, the Just King, that once upon a time he feigned himself sick, and bade his stewards and intendants go round about the provinces of his empire and the quarters of his dominion and seek him out a mud-brick thrown away from some ruined village, that he might use it as medicine, informing his intimates that the leaches had prescribed this to him. So they went the round of the provinces of his reign and of all the lands under his sway and said to him on return, "In all the realm we have found nor ruined site nor castaway mud-brick." At this Anushirwan rejoiced and rendered thanks to the Lord, saying, "I was but minded to try my kingdom and prove mine empire, that I might know if any place therein remained ruined and deserted, so I might rebuild and repeople it; but, since there be no place in it but is inhabited, the affairs of the reign are best-conditioned and its ordinance is excellent; and its populousness[FN#464] hath reached the pitch of perfection."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.