' Then said she, 'I
will ask thee one question, which if thou answer, it is well:
but if thou answer not, I will strip off thy clothes.' 'Ask
on,' quoth the Khalif; and she said, 'Which verse of the
Koran has in it three-and-twenty Kafs,[FN#298] which sixteen
Mims,[FN#299] which a hundred and forty Ains,[FN#300] and which
section[FN#301] lacks the formula, "To whom [God] belong might
and majesty"?' He could not answer, and she said to him, 'Put
off thy clothes.' So he doffed them, and she said, 'O Commander
of the Faithful, the verse of the sixteen Mims is in the
chapter Houd and is the saying of the Most High, "It was
said, 'O Noah, go down in peace from us, and blessing upon
thee!'"[FN#302]; that of the three-and-twenty Kafs is the verse
called of the Faith, in the chapter of the Cow; that of the
hundred and forty Ains is in the chapter of El Aaraf,[FN#303]
"And Moses chose seventy men of his tribe to [attend] our
appointed time;[FN#304] to each man a pair of eyes."[FN#305]
And the set portion which lacks the formula, "To whom [God]
belong might and majesty," is that which comprises the chapters
"The Hour draweth nigh and the Moon is cloven in twain," "The
Compassionate" and "The Event.
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