However, my mother used to go out to service and feed me
and give me to drink, whilst I lay on my side.
One day, she came in to me, with five silver dirhems, and said to
me, "O my son, I hear that the Sheikh Aboul Muzeffer is about to
go a voyage to China." (Now this Sheikh was a good and charitable
man and loved the poor.) "So come, let us carry him these five
dirhems and beg him to buy thee therewith somewhat from the land
of China, so haply thou mayst make a profit of it, by the bounty
of God the Most High!" I was too lazy to move; but she swore by
Allah that, except I rose and went with her, she would neither
bring me meat nor drink nor come in to me, but would leave me to
die of hunger and thirst. When I heard this, O Commander of the
Faithful, I knew she would do as she said; so I said to her,
"Help me to sit up." She did so, and I wept the while and said to
her, "Bring me my shoes." Accordingly, she brought them and I
said, "Put them on my feet." She put them on my feet and I said,
"Lift me up." So she lifted me up and I said, "Support me, that I
may walk." So she supported me and I went along thus, still
stumbling in my skirts, till we came to the river-bank, where we
saluted the Sheikh and I said to him, "O uncle, art thou Aboul
Muzeffer?" "At thy service," answered he, and I said, "Take these
dirhems and buy me somewhat from the land of China: haply, God
may vouchsafe me a profit of it.
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