[35] Koran, xxi. 23.
[36] Koran, xxvii. 66.
[37] The ram is a type of courage.
[38] A legendary sage. He here pretends to kill the boy, that the king may recover through joy on finding his son alive.
[39] An adherent of the Shī’a sect, which acknowledges ‘Alī, but rejects Abu-Bekr, ‘Othmān and ‘Omar as lawful caliphs.
[40] So the point of this story turns upon an untranslatable pun.
[41] Koran, viii. 128, and lxiv. 15.
[42] To prevent their spreading the report of the king’s disappearance.
[43] Sultan Mahmūd, the son of Sebuktekīn, of Ghazni.
[44] Hasan of Maymand was a minister, not of Sultan Mahmūd, but of that monarch’s father. Hasan’s son, Ahmed, was Mahmūd’s vezir.