“Under these domes how many a company * Halted of old and fared
with-outen stay:
See thou what might displays on other wights * Time with his
shifts which could such lords waylay:
They shared together what they gathered * And left their joys and
fared to Death-decay:
What joys they joyed! what food they ate! and now * In dust
they’re eaten, for the worm a prey.”
At this the Emir Musa wept bitter tears; and the world waxed yellow before his eyes and he said, “Verily, we were created for a mighty matter!”[FN#114] Then they proceeded to explore the palace and found it desert and void of living thing, its courts desolate and dwelling places waste laid. In the midst stood a lofty pavilion with a dome rising high in air, and about it were four hundred tombs, builded of yellow marble. The Emir drew near unto these and behold, amongst them was a great tomb, wide and long; and at its head stood a tablet of white marble, whereon were graven these couplets,
“How oft have I fought! and how many have slain! * How much have
I witnessed of blessing and bane!
How much have I eaten! how much have I drunk! * How oft have I
hearkened to singing-girl’s strain!
How much have I bidden! how oft have forbid! * How many a castle
and castellain
I have sieged and have searched, and the cloistered maids * In
the depths of its walls for my captives were ta’en!
But of ignorance sinned I to win me the meeds * Which won proved
naught and brought nothing of gain:
Then reckon thy reck’ning, O man, and be wise * Ere the goblet of
death and of doom thou shalt drain;
For yet but a little the dust on thy head * They shall strew, and
thy life shall go down to the dead.”
The Emir and his companions wept; then, drawing near unto the pavilion, they saw that it had eight doors of sandal-wood, studded with nails of gold and stars of silver and inlaid with all manner precious stones. On the first door were written these verses,
“What I left, I left it not for nobility of soul, * But through
sentence and decree that to every man are dight.
What while I lived happy, with a temper haught and high, * My
hoarding-place defending like a lion in the fight,
I took no rest, and greed of gain forbad me give a grain * Of
mustard seed to save from the fires of Hell my sprite,
Until stricken on a day, as with arrow, by decree * Of the Maker,
the Fashioner, the Lord of Might and Right.
When my death was appointed, my life I could not keep * By the
many of my stratagems, my cunning and my sleight:
My troops I had collected availed me not, and none * Of my
friends and of my neighbours had power to mend my plight:
Through my life I was weaned in journeying to death * In stress
or in solace, in joyance or despight:
So when money-bags are bloated, and dinar unto dinar * Thou
addest, all may leave thee with fleeting of the night:
And the driver of a camel and the digger of a grave[FN#115] * Are
what thine heirs shall bring ere the morning dawneth bright:
And on Judgment Day alone shalt thou stand before thy Lord, *
Overladen with thy sins and thy crimes and thine affright:
Let the world not seduce thee with lurings, but behold * What
measure to thy family and neighbours it hath doled.”
When Musa heard these verses, he wept with such weeping that he swooned away; then, coming to himself, he entered the pavilion and saw therein a long tomb, awesome to look upon, whereon was a tablet of China steel and Shaykh Abd al-Samad drew near it and read this inscription: “In the name of Ever-lasting Allah, the Never-beginning, the Never-ending; in the name of Allah who begetteth not nor is He begot and unto whom the like is not; in the name of Allah the Lord of Majesty and Might; in the name of the Living One who to death is never dight!”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shaykh Abd al-Samad, having read the aforesaid, also found the following, “O thou who comest to this place, take warning by that which thou seest of the accidents of Time and the vicissitudes of Fortune and be not deluded by the world and its pomps and vanities and fallacies and falsehoods and vain allurements, for that it is flattering, deceitful and treacherous, and the things thereof are but a loan to us which it will borrow back from all borrowers. It is like unto the dreams of the dreamer and the sleep-visions of the sleeper or as the mirage of the desert, which the thirsty take for water;[FN#116] and Satan maketh it fair for men even unto death. These are the ways of the world; wherefore put not thou thy trust therein neither incline thereto, for it betrayeth him who leaneth upon it and who committeth himself thereunto in his affairs. Fall not thou into its snares neither take hold upon its skirts, but be warned by my example. I possessed four thousand bay horses and a haughty palace, and I had to wife a thousand daughters of kings, high-bosomed maids, as they were moons: I was blessed with a thousand sons as they were fierce lions, and I abode a thousand years, glad of heart and mind, and I amassed treasures beyond the competence of all the Kings of the regions of the earth, deeming that delight would still endure to me. But there fell on me unawares the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies, the Desolator of domiciles and the Spoiler of inhabited spots, the Murtherer of great and small, babes and children and mothers, he who hath no ruth on the poor for his poverty, or feareth the King for all his bidding or forbidding. Verily, we abode safe and secure in this palace, till there descended upon us the judgment of the Lord of the Three Worlds, Lord of the Heavens, and Lord of the Earths, the vengeance of the Manifest Truth[FN#117] overtook us, when there died of us every day two, till a great company of us had perished. When I saw that destruction had entered our dwellings and had homed with us and in the sea of deaths had drowned us, I summoned a writer and bade him indite these verses and instances and admonitions, the which I let grave, with rule and compass, on these doors and tablets and tombs. Now I had an army of a thousand thousand bridles, men of warrior mien with forearms strong and keen, armed with spears and mail-coats sheen and swords that gleam; so I bade them don their long-hanging hauberks and gird on their biting blades and mount their high-mettled steeds and level their dreadful lances; and whenas there fell on us the doom of the Lord of heaven and earth, I said to them, Ho, all ye soldiers and troopers, can ye avail to ward off that which is fallen on me from the Omnipotent King?’ But troopers and soldiers availed not unto this and said, How shall we battle with Him to whom no chamberlain barreth access, the Lord of the door which hath no doorkeeper?’ Then quoth I to them, Bring me my treasures’ Now I had in my treasuries a thousand cisterns in each of which were a thousand quintals[FN#118] of red gold and the like of white silver, besides pearls and jewels of all kinds and other things of price, beyond the attainment of the kings of the earth. So they did that and when they had laid all the treasure in my presence, I said to them, Can ye ransom me with all this treasure or buy me one day of life therewith?’ But they could not! So they resigned themselves to fore-ordained Fate and fortune and I submitted to the judgment of Allah, enduring patiently that which he decreed unto me of affliction, till He took my soul and made me to dwell in my grave. And if thou ask of my name, I am Kúsh, the son of Shaddád son of Ád the Greater.” And upon the tablets were engraved these lines,
“An thou wouldst know my name, whose day is done * With shifts of
time and chances ’neath the sun,
Know I am Shaddád’s son, who ruled mankind * And o’er all earth
upheld dominion!
All stubborn peoples abject were to me; * And Shám to Cairo and
to Adnanwone;[FN#119]
I reigned in glory conquering many kings; * And peoples feared my
mischief every one.
Yea, tribes and armies in my hand I saw; * The world all dreaded
me, both friends and fone.
When I took horse, I viewed my numbered troops, * Bridles on
neighing steeds a million.
And I had wealth that none could tell or count, * Against
misfortune treasuring all I won;
Fain had I bought my life with all my wealth, * And for a
moment’s space my death to shun;
But God would naught save what His purpose willed; * So from my
brethren cut I ’bode alone:
And Death, that sunders man, exchanged my lot * To pauper hut
from grandeur’s mansion
When found I all mine actions gone and past * Wherefor I’m
pledged[FN#120] and by my sin undone.
Then fear, O man, who by a brink dost range, * The turns of
Fortune and the chance of Change.”
The Emir Musa was hurt to his heart and loathed his life for what he saw of the slaughtering-places of the folk; and, as they went about the highways and byeways of the palace, viewing its sitting-chambers and pleasaunces, behold they came upon a table of yellow onyx, upborne on four feet of juniper-wood,[FN#121] and there-on these words graven, “At this table have eaten a thousand kings blind of the right eye and a thousand blind of the left and yet other thousand sound of both eyes, all of whom have departed the world and have taken up their sojourn in the tombs and the catacombs.” All this the Emir wrote down and left the palace, carrying off with him naught save the table aforesaid. Then he fared on with his host three days’ space, under the guidance of the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, till they came to a high hill, whereon stood a horseman of brass. In his hand he held a lance with a broad head, in brightness like blinding leven, whereon was graven, “O thou that comest unto me, if thou know not the way to the City of Brass, rub the hand of this rider and he will turn round and presently stop. Then take the direction whereto he faceth and fare fearless, for it will bring thee, without hardship, to the city aforesaid.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.