Then he offered to pay them, from the Treasury, the bloodwit
for their father; but they refused, saying, 'We forgave him but
of our desire unto God the Bountiful, the Exalted; and he who
is thus minded followeth not his benefits with reproach neither
mischief.'
THE KHALIF EL MAMOUN AND THE PYRAMIDS OF
EGYPT.
It is told that the Khalif El Mamoun, son of Haroun er Reshid,
when he entered the [God-]guarded city of Cairo, was minded to
pull down the Pyramids, that he might take what was therein;
but, when he went about to do this, he could not avail thereto,
for all his endeavour. He expended great sums of money in the
attempt, but only succeeded in opening up a small gallery in
one of them, wherein he found treasure, to the exact amount of
the money he had spent in the works, neither more nor less; at
which he marvelled and taking what he found there, desisted
from his intent.
Now the Pyramids are three in number, and they are one of the
wonders of the world; nor is there on the face of the earth
their like for height and fashion and skilful ordinance; for
they are builded of immense rocks, and they who built them
proceeded by piercing one block of stone and setting therein
upright rods of iron; after which they pierced a second block
of stone and lowered it upon the first.
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