So I accosted him and said to
him, "O my friend, dost thou seek work?" "Yes," answered he;
and I said, "Come with me and build a wall." "On two conditions,"
replied he. Quoth I, "What are they, O my friend?" "First,"
said he, "that my hire be a dirhem and a danic, and secondly,
that, when the Muezzin calls to prayer, thou shalt let me
go pray with the congregation." "It is well," answered I
and carried him to my house, where he fell to work, such work
as I never saw the like of. Presently, I named to him the
morning meal; but he said, "No;" and I knew that he was
fasting. When he heard the call to prayer, he said to me, "Thou
knowest the condition?" "Yes," answered I. So he loosed his
girdle and applying himself to the ablution, made it after a
fashion than which I never saw a goodlier; then went to the
mosque and prayed with the congregation and returned to his
work. He did the like upon the call to afternoon-prayer, and
when I saw him fall to work again thereafterward, I said to
him, "O my friend, the hours of labour are over for to-day; a
workman's day is but till the time of afternoon-prayer." "Glory
be to God," answered he, "my service is till the night.
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