Then said he to the treasurer, 'I conjure thee by the One God the Omnipotent King and Protector, kill me before my brother Asaad and allay the fire of my heart!' But Asaad wept and exclaimed, 'Not so: I will die first;' whereupon said Amjed, 'It were best that we embrace each other, so the sword may fall upon us and kill us both at one stroke.' So they embraced, face to face, and clipped each other straitly, whilst the treasurer bound them fast with cords, weeping the while. Then he drew his sword and said to them, 'By Allah, O my lords, it is indeed hard to me to kill you! But have ye no last wishes or injunctions that I may fulfil or message that I may carry?' 'We have no wish,' replied Amjed, 'and my only injunction to thee is that thou set my brother undermost, that the blow may fall on me first; and when thou hast slain us and returnest to the King and he asks thee, "What said they before their death?" do thou answer, "Thy sons salute thee and say to thee, 'Thou knewest not if we were innocent or guilty, yet hast thou put us to death and hast not certified thyself of our guilt nor looked into our case.'" Then do thou repeat to him these verses:
Women are very devils, made to work us dole and death; Refuge I
seek with God Most High from all their craft and scaith.
Prime source are they of all the ills that fall upon mankind,
Both in the fortunes of this world and matters of the faith.
'We desire of thee nought but this,' continued Amjed, 'except that thou have patience with us, whilst I repeat other two lines to my brother.' Then he wept sore and recited the following verses:
Examples many, thou and I, We have in kings of days gone by, How many, alack, have trod this road, Of great and small and low and high!
At this the treasurer wept, till his beard was wet, whilst Asaad's eyes filled with tears and he in turn repeated these verses:
Fate, when the thing itself is past, afflicteth with the trace,
And weeping is not, of a truth, for body or form or
face.[FN#60]
What ails the nights?[FN#61] May God blot out our error from the
nights And may the hand of change bewray and bring them to
disgrace!
They wreaked their malice to the full on Ibn ez Zubeir[FN#62]
erst, And on the House and Sacred Stone[FN#63] his safeguard
did embrace.
Would God, since Kharijeh[FN#64] they took for Amrou's sacrifice,
They'd ransomed Ali with whome'er they would of all our
race!
Then, with cheeks stained with thick-coming tears, he recited these also:
The days and nights are fashioned for treachery and despite; Yea,
they are full of perfidy and knavish craft and sleight.
The mirage is their lustre of teeth, and to their eyes The horror
of all darkness the kohl that keeps them bright.
My crime against them (hateful their nature is!) is but The
sword's crime, when the sworder sets on into the fight.
Then he sobbed and said:
O thou that seeketh the worthless world, give ear to me and know
The very net of ruin it is and quarry of dole and woe;
A stead, whom it maketh laugh to-day, to-morrow it maketh weep:
Out on it then for a dwelling-place, since it is even so!
Its raids and its onsets are never done, nor can its bondsman win
To free himself from its iron clutch by dint of stress and
throe.
How many an one in its vanities hath gloried and taken pride,
Till froward and arrogant thus he grew and did all bounds
o'ergo!
Then did she[FN#65] turn him the buckler's back and give him to
drink therein Full measure and set her to take her wreak of
the favours she did show.
For know that her blows fall sudden and swift and unawares,
though long The time of forbearance be and halt the coming
of fate and slow.
So look to thyself, lest life in the world pass idle and
profitless by, And see that thou fail not of taking thought
to the end of all below.
Cast loose from the chains of the love and the wish of the world
and thou shalt find Guidance and help unto righteousness and
peace of heart, I trow.