On the morrow, he sent to invite Jaafer; and when he
came, he set wine before him and bade the girl sing to him, from
behind the curtain. Jaafer knew her voice and was angered at
this, but, of the nobleness of his nature and the greatness of
his mind, he dissembled his vexation and let no change appear in
his demeanour.
When the carousel was at an end, El Amin commanded one of his
servants to fill the boat, in which Jaafer had come, with
dirhems and dinars and all manner jewels and jacinths and rich
clothes and other treasures of price. So he laid therein a
thousand myriads of money and a thousand fine pearls, each
worth twenty thousand dirhems; nor did he give over loading the
barge with all manner of precious things, till the boatmen
cried out for quarter, saying, 'The boat cannot hold any more;'
whereupon he bade them carry all this to Jaafer's palace. Such
are the fashions of the magnanimous, may God have mercy on
them!
THE SONS OF YEHYA BEN KHALID AND SAID BEN
SALIM EL BAHILI.
(Quoth Said ben Salim el Bahili[FN#121]), I was once, in the
days of Haroun er Reshid, in very narrow case and greatly
oppressed with debts, that had accumulated upon me and that I
had no means of discharging.
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