IT is related that there was once, on the throne of the Umayyad Khalifahs in Damascus, a king—but Allah is the only King— called Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who often took pleasure in talking with the wise men of his kingdom concerning our master, Sulaiman ibn Daud (upon the two be prayer and peace!) and in discussing his virtue, his wisdom, and his boundless power over the beasts of the desert, the Afarit of the air, and Jinn of the sea and under earth.
One day, as he was listening with great astonishment and an air of disbelief to a tale which was told him of the old copper jars filled with strange black smoke in devilish forms, Talib ibn Sahl, the renowned traveller, rose among those who were there and, after confirming what had been said, added: ‘O Prince of Believers, it was in those copper jars that the Jinn who rebelled against the orders of Sulaiman were imprisoned in times past; afterwards they were sealed with the powerful seal and thrown to the bottom of the moaning sea in the outermost parts of Maghrib in western Africa. The smoke which escapes from them is, quite simply, the condensed souls of the Afarit, who, on contact with the air, resume their terrible first forms.’
The wonder and curiosity of the Khalifah were noticeably increased by these words; he turned to Talib ibn Sahl and said: ‘O Talib, I am very anxious to see one of those vases filled with the smoke of Afarit. Do you think the thing possible? If so, I am ready to go on the search myself.’ ‘O Commander of the Faithful,‘ answered Talib, ‘you can have the thing brought to you here, without trouble or fatigue to your sacred person. You have only to send a letter to the amir Musa, your viceroy in the lands of Maghrib; for the mountain, at whose foot lies the sea which holds the jars, is joined with Maghrib by a tongue of land which may be crossed dryshod. When the amir Musa receives your letter, he will not fail to execute the orders of his Khalifah.’
Convinced by these words, Abd al-Malik said to Talib: ‘And who more fitting than you, O Talib, to journey quickly to Maghrib and carry the letter to my amir Musa? I authorise you to draw on my treasure for all that you think necessary for the journey and to take as many men as you need. Above all, hasten, O Talib.’ The Khalifah wrote a letter with his own hand to Musa, sealed it, and gave it to Talib, who kissed the earth between his hands and set out upon the hour for Maghrib, where he eventually arrived without accident.
The amir Musa joyfully and honourably received him and, after taking and reading the letter, carried it to his lips and forehead, saying: ‘I hear and I obey!’ Then he commanded the sheikh Abd al-Samad to appear before him: a man who had journeyed over all the habitable earth and was spending the days of his old age in noting down, for the instruction of posterity, the observations which he had made during his countless voyages. When the sheikh arrived, the amir Musa saluted him respectfully, saying: ‘O Abd al-Samad, the Commander of the Faithful has sent me a command to set out in search of certain old copper jars in which the rebel Jinn were imprisoned by our master, Sulaiman ibn Daud. They lie at the bottom of a sea which surges about the foot of a mountain; and it seems that this mountain stands in the furthest confines of Maghrib. Although I have known the whole country for a long time, I have never heard tell of this sea or the road which leads to it; but you, who have wandered over the whole earth, cannot be ignorant of the place of that mountain and that sea.’
The old man reflected for an hour, and then said: ‘O Musa ibn Nusair, I have memories of that mountain and that sea, but at this late day I cannot go there alone, much as I would wish to; the road is a very difficult one because of the lack of water in the wells; it would take two years and some months to go and longer to return. If a return, that is, were possible from a land whose people have never given a sign of their existence and live in a city perched on the top of that mountain, a city which no stranger has ever entered and which is called the City of Brass.’
So saying, the old man fell silent and reflected again, before continuing: ‘I must not hide from you, O amir, that the road is sown with dangers and even with terrors. There is a desert to cross, peopled by the Afarit and the Jinn who guard such lands as have since the beginnings of time been innocent of human habitation. For you must know, O son of Nusair, that the places in the extreme west of Africa are forbidden to the sons of men; two men only have been able to pass over them, Sulaiman ibn Daud and Alexander of the Double Horn. Since their time silence has been untroubled master of those vast deserts. If, disdaining the mystery of those perils and difficulties, you insist upon carrying out the orders of the Khalifah and undertaking a journey through that pathless land with no other guide than myself, you must load a thousand camels with full waterskins and a further thousand with provisions, and take with you the smallest possible number of soldiers; for no human aid could avail us against the anger of those dark powers whose homes we are about to penetrate, and it would be dangerous to affront them by a display of useless arms. When all is ready, make your will, O amir Musa, and let us start.’
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
The amir Musa, governor of Maghrib, called upon the name of Allah and did not hesitate; he assembled the captains of his armies and the chiefs of his kingdom and, making his will in their presence, appointed his son, Harun, to govern in his stead. Then he made the preparation which Abd al-Samad had suggested and, taking with him, beside Talib ibn Sahl, only that old man and a few chosen warriors, journeyed out into the desert. For days and months the caravan went slowly through flat and unpeopled lands, as empty of all life as is the surface of the sea. It continued in an infinite silence until, one day, the travellers saw something afar off on the horizon which looked like a shining cloud, and made their way towards it. Soon they distinguished a building, high-walled with Chinese steel, and supported by four rows of gold columns four thousand paces round. The dome of this palace was of lead and served as a resting place for countless crows, who were the only living things in sight. Upon the great wall, in which opened the principal door made all of massive ebony plated with gold, a vast tablet of red metal bore certain words in Ionian character. These the sheikh Abd al-Samad deciphered and translated to the amir Musa thus:
Enter and learn the story of the rulers,
They rested a little in the shadows of my towers
And then they passed.
They were dispersed like those shadows
When the sun goes down;
They were driven like straws
Before the wind of death.
The amir Musa was moved to sorrow by these words and murmured: ‘There is no other God but Allah!’ Then he crossed the threshold with his companions and entered the palace.
There rose up before them, in the midst of a silent flight of large black birds, a high tower of naked granite whose top was lost to view and about whose foot were clustered four circles of a hundred sepulchres, which surrounded a bright crystal tomb. Encompassing the tomb, this inscription was graved in Ionian character, the letters filled with gold and diversified by precious stones:
The drunkenness of youth has passed like a fever,
And yet I saw many things,
Seeing my glory in the days of my glory.
The feet of my war-horse
Drummed upon the cities of the world;
I sacked great towns like a hot wind
And fell like thunder upon far lands.
The kings of the earth were dragged behind my chariot
And the people of the earth behind my laws;
But now
The drunkenness of youth has passed like a fever,
Like foam upon sand.
Death took me in a net:
My armies warred against him in vain,
My courtiers flattered him in vain.
Listen, O wayfarer, to the words of my death,
For they were not the words of my life:
Save up your soul
And taste the beautiful wine of peace,
For to-morrow the earth shall answer:
He is with me,
My jealous breast holds him for ever.
The amir Musa and his companions, hearing these words translated to them by the old man, could not but weep. They stood for a long time before the tomb and the sepulchres, saying the mournful sentences over to themselves. Then they went towards the tower, which was shut by a double door of ebony on which these words were picked out in jewels and in the same character:
In the name of the Eternal,
In the name of the Master of Strength,
In the name of Him who moves not!
Wayfarer in this place,
Look not upon the glass of appearance,
For a breath may shatter it
And illusion is a pit for the feet of men.
I speak of my power:
I had ten thousand horses
Groomed by captive kings,
I had a thousand virgins of royal blood
To serve my pleasure
And a thousand excellent virgins
With moon-coloured breasts,
Chosen from all the world.
They brought forth little princes in my chambers
And the little princes were as brave as lions.
I had peculiar treasures
And the West and the East were two heads
Bowing before me.
I thought my power eternal
And the days of my life
Fixed surely in the years;
But a whisper came to me
From Him Who dies not.
I called my captains and my strong riders,
Thousands upon thousands
With swords and lances;
I called my tributary kings together
And those who were proud rulers under me.
I opened the boxes of my treasures to them, saying:
‘Take hills of gold, mountains of silver, And give me one more day upon the earth.’
But they stood silent,
Looking upon the ground;
So that I died
And death came to sit upon my throne.
I was Kush ibn Shaddad ibn Ad,
Surnamed the Great.
Hearing these sublime truths, the amir Musa and his companions burst into sobs and wept for a long time. Then they went into the tower and began to move through the vast halls, filled with emptiness and silence. They came at last to one larger than all the others, vaulted with a dome and furnished alone of all. The plenishing of this room was a gigantic table of wonderfully carved sandal wood, upon which this inscription was interlaced in fair character as before:
About this table
Sat many hawk-eyed kings
With many one-eyed kings
To bear them company;
But now all sit in the dark and none are able,
None are able to see.
The amir Musa was astonished before the mystery of what he saw; not being able to find any clue in the inscription, he copied the words upon his parchment; then he left the palace with his companions in sorrowful mood and continued his journey towards the City of Brass.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
They went on for three days until they saw, outlined against the red rays of the setting sun, the appearance of a motionless rider, set upon a high pedestal, brandishing a mighty iron lance which glowed like a flame by reason of the fiery star upon the horizon. When they came close, they could distinguish that the rider, his horse, and his pedestal were all of brass and that, upon the iron of the lance, were graved these words in fiery character:
If you know not where to go
In this forbidden place,
Turn me about with all your strength
And I will show
Your path by the direction which at length
I face.
The amir Musa approached this statue and pushed it with his hand; at once, with the quickness of light, the rider turned and halted with his face towards a point of the compass directly opposed to that which the travellers had been following, so that Abd al-Samad knew that he had been mistaken and that the new direction was the right one. Turning upon its tracks, the caravan went for many days in the way which had been shown, and came at last, at the fall of a certain night, to a column of black stone to which a strange being was chained, one half of whose body was visible and the other half deeply hidden in the ground. The upper half seemed to be that of some monstrous birth imprisoned there by infernal powers. It was as black and large as the trunk of an old and naked palm-tree; it had two great black wings and four hands, of which two were like the taloned feet of lions. A shaggy covering of rude onager-tail hairs moved savagely upon the terrible head, while under the roofs of the sockets flamed two red eyes, and a third shone, immovably green like that of a tiger or a panther, between the twin horns of the bull-like brow. Seeing the travellers, the body waved its arms despairingly, as if to break the chain which bound it to the black column, and gave forth such mournful cries that the whole party were stricken motionless.
The amir Musa turned towards old Abd al-Samad, saying: ‘O venerable, can you tell us what this thing is?’ ‘As Allah lives,’ answered the sheikh, ‘it passes my knowledge.’ ‘Go nearer and question it,’ said Musa, ‘perhaps it will be able to tell us itself.’ Abd al-Samad did not wish to show a moment’s hesitation, so he went up to the monster, crying: ‘In the name of the Master who holds beneath His hand all things visible and invisible, I conjure you to answer me! Tell me who you are, how long you have been here, and why you have suffered so strange a punishment.’
The body bayed like a dog and then addressed these words to the amir Musa, the sheikh Abd al-Samad, and their companions:
I am Dahish ibn al-Aamash, an Ifrit of the line of Iblis, father of the Jinn, chained here by the Invisible Strength until the death of time.
Once, in this land governed by the King of the Sea, there was an idol of red agate, which protected the City of Brass, and I was at once the guardian of and the dweller in this idol. All the people of the land came in crowds to consult Destiny through me and to listen to my oracles and prophecies.
The King of the Sea, whose vassal I was, held supreme command over all the armies of such Jinn as were rebellious to the orders of Sulaiman ibn Daud, and had named me chief of this army in the event of a war breaking out between himself and the Master of the Jinn. Eventually such a war did break out, and in this way:
The King of the Sea had a daughter, whose beauty was so great that it came even to the ears of Sulaiman, and he, being desirous to add her to the number of his wives, sent a messenger to her father to ask her in marriage and at the same time to command him to break the agate idol and affirm that there was no other God but Allah and that Sulaiman was the prophet of Allah. Also he threatened him with his vengeance if he did not comply with these commands.
The King of the Sea called together his wazirs and the chief of the Jinn, saying: ‘Sulaiman threatens me with every sort of calamity if I do not give him my daughter and break the idol in which your chief Dahish ibn al-Aamash dwells. What say you: shall I obey or disobey?’
‘Why should you fear the power of Sulaiman, O king?’ answered the wazirs. ‘Our forces are as strong as his.’ Then they turned to me and asked my advice. I said: ‘Let our answer to Sulaiman be a good beating to his messenger.’ My advice was carried out, and then the man was sent away with instructions to tell his master what had happened to him.
When Sulaiman learned the treatment which his envoy had undergone, he grew mightily indignant and at once assembled all his forces, of Jinn, of men, of birds and of animals. To Asaf ibn Barakhya he gave the command of his human soldiers; to Dimiryat, King of the Afarit, the leadership of all the forces of the Jinn to the number of sixty millions and also of the troops of animals and birds of prey which he had assembled from earth and sky and sea. Heading the combined forces himself, Sulaiman entered the lands of my master and drew his army up into battle array.
He set the animals on the two wings in ranks of four abreast, and posted the great birds of prey in the air above them to act as sentinels and spies upon our movements and to hurl themselves upon our men when an opportunity served for tearing out their eyes. He put his human soldiers in the vanguard and the army of the Jinn in the rear; he placed the wazir Asaf ibn Barakhya on his right and Dimiryat, King of the Afarit of the air, upon his left. He himself stayed in the centre, sitting upon a throne of porphyry and gold, held up by four elephants, and gave the signal for attack.
At once a terrible noise was heard which increased every minute with the galloping of the soldiers, the tumultuous flight of the Jinn and the birds of prey, the leaping and charging of the men and the wild beasts; the surface of the earth resounded with the tread of a million feet, the air with the beating of a million wings, with howls and yells and cries.
I was in command of the vanguard of the rebel Jinn who owned allegiance to the King of the Sea. I gave the signal to my troops and, leading them myself, threw them upon the opposing Jinn, commanded by King Dimiryat.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
I sought out the King to attack him myself, when suddenly he changed to a bursting mountain, vomiting fire and striving to lay me low and smother me under the hurtling coals which he poured in solid waves upon my people. For long I rallied my followers, defended myself, and attacked hardily; it was only when I saw that the number of my foes would surely overwhelm me that I gave the signal of retreat and myself fled away through the air with all the strength of my wings. By the orders of Sulaiman we were pursued and hemmed in on all sides by Afarit and men, by the beasts and the birds; some of us were stricken to death, others crushed beneath the feet of the great animals, and others hurled from the high air by the birds of prey, with eyes plucked out and flesh torn into ribbons. When I myself was taken, after a flight of three months, I was condemned to be fastened to the black pillar until the death of time; while my followers were changed into smoke and imprisoned in copper jars, which were then sealed with the seal of Sulaiman and thrown into the sea which bathes the walls of the City of Brass.
Chained here, as I have been, since the ruin of our power, I cannot well tell you what has happened to the people of this country; but if you journey to the City of Brass perhaps you will see traces of them and learn something of their story.
When the body had finished speaking, it began to shake itself so desperately that the amir Musa and his companions, fearing lest it should get free or oblige them in some way to free it, hastened away on their journey towards the City, which they now saw afar off with the light of evening hanging red upon its towers and walls.
Although they were not far from the City when night fell, the surrounding country seemed so menacing that they preferred to wait till morning before approaching its gates; therefore they pitched their tents and slept, being worn out by the fatigues of their journey.
As soon as the first light of dawn came upon the eastern mountain tops, the amir Musa woke his companions and set out with them in order to reach one of the gates as soon as possible. Soon they saw, rising formidably before them in the clear light of morning, the brass walls, which were so polished that they seemed to have come newly out of moulds. They were so high that they had the appearance of being but the lowest range of the gigantic mountains which surrounded them, in whose flanks they were so firmly fixed that they might have been hewn out of the original metal of the hills.
For some time the party halted in motionless silence before this wonder, while their eyes searched for some door by which to enter the city. This they could not find, so they began to walk round the walls, always hoping to discover some entrance. For many hours they continued their search, without seeing any door or breach whatsoever, or person coming towards the city or going from it. Though the day was far advanced, they heard no noise either within or without the walls and could remark no movement either on the walls or at their feet. The amir Musa, without losing hope, encouraged his companions to go on walking; so they journeyed till evening, seeing nothing but the inflexible line of the brass walls stretching out before them, following the movement of the earth, the valley, and the peaks, and seeming to rise from the bosom of the world itself.
The amir Musa ordered his companions to halt for food and sleep; and he himself sat down to ponder a course of action. When he was rested, he ordered his soldiers to watch over the encampment until his return, and himself, with the sheikh Abd al-Samad and Talib ibn Sahl, climbed a high mountain in order to inspect the surrounding country and more clearly to see this city, which offered so stubborn a resistance to human visitors.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
At first they could distinguish nothing in the darkness, for night had already spread her shadows over the plain; but suddenly the light in the east grew greater and the splendid moon swam from behind the top of a mountain and lighted earth and sky at once with the sparkling of her eyes. Then at their feet unrolled a sight which made them hold their breath.
They were looking down upon a city of dream.
Under the white radiance falling from on high, as far as the eye might reach towards the horizon which was still bathed in night, spread out the domes of palaces, the terraces of houses, calm gardens levelled in the living brass, moon-bright canals making a thousand wanderings in and out of the shadows of trees, and, lowest of all, a metal sea holding in its cold breast the drowned fires of the sky: so that the brass of the walls, the lighted jewels of the domes, the white terraces, the canals, and all the sea, together with the shadows which lay towards the west, mingled in the night breeze because of the witchcraft of the moon.
This vast prospect was buried in silence as in a tomb; no trace of human life might be found there; but tall figures of brass on monumental bases, mighty riders hewn from marble, winged animals in motionless flight, all showed with the same frustrate gesture of movement; and, in the sky above the buildings, turned, the sole moving things in all the motionless perspective, thousands of enormous vampires, whose flight was accompanied by the lamentations of invisible owls, calling from the dead palaces and sleeping towers.
When the amir Musa and his companions had filled their eyes with this strange sight, they descended from the mountain in a state of great astonishment (for they had seen no sign of human habitation within the walls) and came to the lower level at a part of the brass battlements where were four inscriptions carved in Ionian character. These the sheikh Abd al-Samad deciphered and translated to the amir.
The first said:
O sons of men,
You add the future to the future
But your sum is spoiled
By the grey cipher of death.
There is a Master
Who breathes upon armies,
Building a narrow and dark house for kings.
These wake above their dust
In a black commonwealth.
At those words, the amir Musa cried: ‘O sublime truth! O waking of the soul in the equality of earth! That strikes one to the heart!’ When he had copied the words upon his parchment, the sheikh translated to him the second inscription, which said:
O sons of men,
Why do you put your hands before your eyes
And play in this road as if for ever,
Which is a short passing to another place?
Where are the kings
Whose loins jetted empires,
Where are the very strong men,
Masters of Irak?
Where are the lords of Isfahan,
O sons of men?
The amir Musa copied this inscription and, sore at heart, listened to the old man as he translated the third:
O sons of men,
You see a stranger upon the road,
You call to him and he does not stop.
He is your life
Walking towards time,
Hurrying to meet the kings of India and China,
Hurrying to greet the sultans of Sina and Nubia,
Who were blown over the mountain crest
By a certain breath,
Even as he.
The amir Musa cried: ‘Where are the sultans of Sina and Nubia? They are cast over into nothing!’ The fourth inscription said:
O sons of men,
Lean death perches upon your shoulder
Looking down into your cup of wine,
Looking down on the breasts of your lady.
You are caught in the web of the world
And the spider Nothing waits behind it.
Where are the men with towering hopes?
They have changed places with owls,
Owls that lived in tombs
And now inhabit a palace.
The amir Musa could no longer contain his emotion but wept, holding his brow in his hands and saying to himself: ‘O mystery of birth and death! Why is a man born if he must die? Why live, if death brings forgetfulness of life? But Allah alone understands the purpose of our Destiny; it is for us to bow before Him in silent obedience.’ After these reflections he went on with his friends towards the camp, and ordered his soldiers to set to work at once on the construction of a long and solid ladder, which would reach to the top of the walls and might be used as a means of descent into the gateless city.
At once the soldiers collected wood and the large dry branches of trees, cut and shaped these as well as they were able with their swords and knives, and bound them together with their turbans and belts, with the halters of the camels, and the leather of the equipments, until they had constructed a ladder tall enough to reach the top of the walls. They carried it to the most favourable position, propped it on all sides with large stones, and then, after invoking the name of Allah, began to climb slowly, with the amir Musa leading them.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
The amir Musa, with his two companions and such of his soldiers as he had not left below to guard the camp, walked along the top of the wall for some time and at last came to two towers joined by a double door of brass so perfectly made that even the point of a needle could not have passed into the crack of it. On this door a golden rider was engraved in relief, with stretched arm and open hand: upon the palm of the hand were to be seen some words traced in Ionian character, which the sheikh Abd al-Samad deciphered and translated thus: ‘Twelve times rub the nail in my navel.’
Surprised by these words, the amir Musa went up to the picture of the rider and saw that there was indeed a golden nail fixed in the very centre of his navel. Stretching up his hand, he began to rub this nail and, when his finger had passed over it the twelfth time, the two halves of the door opened fully, showing behind them a winding stair of red granite, which led downwards. Without hesitation, Musa and his party walked down this stair, which eventually led them into a hall, giving, at its own level, upon a street, where were stationed sentinels, armed with bows and swords. ‘Let us go speak with them, that they may not interfere with us,’ said the amir Musa.
They went up to these guards, some of whom stood to attention with their shields upon their arms and their naked swords in their hands, and others of whom sat or lay at ease, and Musa, addressing himself to one who seemed to be a captain among them, courteously wished him peace. The man did not move or answer the greeting; the other sentinels remained motionless with fixed eyes, paying no attention at all to the new-comers.
Thinking that these soldiers did not understand Arabic, Musa said to Abd al-Samad: ‘O sheikh, speak to them in all the languages which you know.’ The old man spoke to them first in Greek and then, seeing that this was useless, in the language of Hind, and afterwards in Hebrew, Persian, Ethiopic, and Sudanese. But none answered to these tongues or made any sign. Then said Musa: ‘Perhaps these soldiers are offended that you have not greeted them with the peculiar salute of their country. Try the gestures of greeting of all the countries which you know.’ The venerable Abd al-Samad at once tried over all the polite movements used in the greetings of the peoples of all the lands which he had known; but none of the soldiers moved even for that.
In his astonishment, the amir Musa tried no further, but, bidding his companions follow him, walked along the street, puzzling his brains for the meaning of this dumbness. ‘As Allah lives,’ said Abd al-Samad to himself, ‘never in all my travels have I met with so extraordinary a circumstance!’
At last the travellers came to the entrance of the market and, finding all the doors open, walked into it. The place was filled with folk buying and selling and the fronts of the shops were marvellously filled with merchandise; but the buyers and the sellers and all others in the market seemed, by common accord, to have halted in their movements as soon as they were seen, and appeared to be waiting for the departure of the strangers before going on with their business. They paid no attention to the new-comers and only expressed their displeasure at this intrusion by ignoring them. Amid a disdainful silence, the travellers walked on until they came to a great enclosed and vaulted market, where their footsteps echoed with a great noise because of the lack of all other sound. They walked through this building without exciting either welcoming or hostile movements or smiles; and in the same way visited the markets of the jewellers, silk-merchants, saddlers, cloth-merchants, cobblers, and sellers of spices and aromatic woods.
When they had passed through this last market, they came suddenly upon a great square of brass where the sun blinded their eyes, widen had before been soothed by the half-lights of the markets. At the other end of this square, between brass columns of prodigious height surmounted by golden animals with spread wings, rose a marble palace, flanked by brass towers and ringed round with armed, immovable guards, whose lances and swords burned everlastingly. A gate of gold gave entrance to the palace, and through this the amir Musa ventured with his friends.
At first they saw a gallery supported by prophyry columns which ran the whole length of the building and enclosed a court refreshed with basins of coloured marble. This gallery seemed to be an arsenal, for there were fastened to all the columns and all the walls and to the ceiling admirable weapons of war, marvellously enriched with precious stones, and taken from all the countries of the earth. Resting on ebony benches, wonderfully inlaid with gold and silver, sat or lay a host of warriors in their parade dresses; but not one of them made a movement to bar the progress of the new-comers or to prevent them from continuing their astonished exploration.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
Following this gallery, they saw that the higher part of it was ornamented with a heavily carved cornice, on the blue ground of which was engraved in letters of gold an inscription in the Ionian tongue, which the sheikh Abd al-Samad faithfully translated thus:
O sons of men,
Turn quickly and you will see death
Behind your shoulder.
Adam saw him, Nimrod saw him
Who wound his horn in the forest,
The masters of Persia saw him.
Alexander, who wrestled with the world
And threw the world,
Turned quickly and saw death
Behind his shoulder.
Hamun and Karan,
Shaddad the son of Ad,
Turned and beheld him.
They were ordered to leave their places
And answer a question,
Which the world could not ask.
O sons of men,
When you give yourselves to the sweet trap of life
Leave one limb free for God.
The fear of death is the beginning of wisdom
And the fair things you do
Shall blow and smell like flowers
On the red and fiery day.
When they had written this moving inscription on their parchments, they opened a large door in the middle of the gallery and went through into a hall where a fountain of transparent marble threw its jet of water into the air. Above this fountain there spread out, as a ceiling of pleasing colour, a pavilion of silk and gold, whose shades were married with a perfect art. To come to the fountain basin, the water followed four canals, hollowed in the floor of the hall, with calculated meanderings. Each canal had a bed of different colour: the waters of the first flowed over a bed of rose porphyry, of the second over topazes, of the third over emeralds, and of the fourth over turquoises; so that the water in each case took the colour of its bed and, stricken by the altered light filtering through the silks above, threw on all things about its course and upon the walls of marble the fair appearance of the sea.
They went through a second door and entered a second hall, filled with old gold and silver monies, with jewels and pearls, with rubies and every precious stone, heaped into so frequent mounds that they had difficulty in walking across the place and attaining a third hall which lay beyond.
This last was filled with warlike arms constructed of precious metals: gold shields bossed with deep-coloured jewels, antique helmets, Indian swords, lances, javelins, and mail of the time of Daud and of Sulaiman. All these weapons were in such a state of preservation that one would have said that they had come but the day before from the hands of their smiths.
They found a fourth hall filled with presses and shelves of rare woods, on which were carefully ordered rich clothes and sumptuous robes of costly silk and admirably-worked brocade. Crossing this hall, they came into a fifth, which held from floor to ceiling nothing but vases and other utensils for eating, drinking and ablution: there were gold and silver jars, basins of rock crystal, cups hollowed each from a single precious stone, with dishes of solid jade or different coloured agate.
When they had filled the admiration of their eyes with these things and were thinking of returning by the way they had come, it occurred to them to lift a mighty curtain of gold and silk which covered one of the walls of this last hall. Behind it they found a larger door than all, worked with fine inlay of ivory and ebony and fastened by locks of solid silver with no trace of room for a key. The sheikh Abd al-Samad set to work to study the mechanism of these locks and at last found a hidden spring which gave beneath his pressure. Then the door opened of itself and gave free way to the travellers into a miraculous chamber hollowed inside a polished marble dome, which had the appearance of a steel mirror. By a trellis of emeralds and diamonds across the windows of this place a shining white and green light filtered, which painted everything with its splendour. In the middle of the room, lifted on little gold pillars each surmounted by a bird with emerald feathers and a ruby beak, was a platform, spread with fabrics of silk and gold, which fell from it down an ivory decline and on the floor mingled with a magnificently coloured carpet, where cunning looms had caused odourless flowers to flourish among sapless grass and had created all the lifeless life of a forest filled with birds and beasts caught in the exact beauty of their nature and of their rigorous lines.
The amir Musa and his friend climbed to this platform and were there stricken still in amazement. Under a velvet canopy starred with diamonds, there lay, on a large bed of silken carpets, a girl of flower-like colouring, her lids languid with sleep below curved brows. Her magic beauty was heightened by the gold crown which checked the play of her hair and by a moist collar of pearls which kissed her golden skin. To right and left of the bed stood two slaves, one white and the other black, armed each with a naked sword and a steel pike. At the foot of the bed was to be seen a strip of marble on which these words were engraved:
I am Tadmurah, Princess of the Amalekites. This city is my city. O you who have come so far, take all which pleases you; but ah, beware! if my beauty and your lust draw you to lay a violating hand on me!
When the amir Musa had recovered from the emotion caused in him by the sleeping girl, he said to his companions: ‘It is time now that we left these places, for we have seen all astonishing things, and it is our duty to go towards the sea to find those copper jars. You may take from this palace anything which attracts you, but beware of setting hand to this king’s daughter or touching even so much as her garment.’
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
Then said Talib ibn Sahl: ‘O amir, nothing in this palace can compare for beauty with this young girl. It would be a pity not to take her to Damascus and offer her to the Khalifah. He would prefer such a gift to all the jars of Afarit in the world.’ ‘We must not touch the princess,’ answered Musa. ‘To touch her would be to offend her and to draw down calamities upon ourselves.’ But Talib answered: ‘O amir, princesses do not mind that sort of violence, whether they are awake or asleep.’ So saying, he approached the girl and would have lifted her in his arms; but he fell dead, pierced by the swords and pikes of the two slaves, through the heart and through the head.
Seeing this, the amir Musa would not stay for a moment longer in that palace; but, leaving the city with his companions, hastened along the road towards the sea. When they came to the shore, they saw a great many black men occupied in drying their nets, and these men answered their greetings in Arabic, according to Mussulman usage. The amir Musa said to the eldest among them, who appeared to be their chief: ‘Venerable old man, we come on behalf of our master the Khalifah, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, to search this sea for jars containing Afarit of the time of the prophet Sulaiman. Can you help us in our quest and explain to us the mystery of the city where all the people are motionless?’ The old man answered: ‘My son, all we fishermen upon this shore are Believers in the word of Allah and of His Prophet (upon whom be prayer and peace!). But the inhabitants of the City of Brass have been enchanted since old time and will stay as they are until the Judgment Day. Nothing is easier than for you to gain possession of those jars of Afarit, for we have a great number of them, which we use for cooking our fish once they have been unsealed. We can give you as many as you like; only I warn you that it is necessary to slap the jars with your hand before unsealing them and to extract an oath from those within that they will acknowledge the truth of the mission of our Prophet, Muhammad, to atone for their first fault and rebellion against the supremacy of Sulaiman ibn Daud…. We shall also be pleased to give you, as a proof of our fidelity to the master of all, the Commander of the Faithful, two Daughters of the Sea, whom we have caught to-day and who are more beautiful than all human women.’
So saying, the old man handed over to the amir Musa twelve copper jars, lead-sealed with the seal of Sulaiman, and the two Daughters of the Sea, miraculous creatures, with long hair combing like waves, with faces of moonlight, and round breasts as hard as the pebbles of ocean. From their navels down they lacked the fleshy beauties which are so attractive in the daughters of men, but had instead fish bodies, which they moved to right and left as other women move their thighs when they see that men are watching their walking. Their voices were sweet and their smiles most pleasing, but they could neither speak nor understand any known language, and answered all questions put to them with the laughter of their eyes.
The amir Musa and his companions thanked the old man for his generosity and invited him, with all the other fishermen, to leave that country and journey with the caravan to Damascus, city of flowers, of fruits and of sweet waters. The fishermen accepted this offer, and the whole party first visited the City of Brass, where they possessed themselves of all which they could carry of gold, jewels, and things light to lift but of heavy price. Thus burdened, they came down from the brass walls, filled their sacks and provision cases with their booty, and took the road to Damascus, where they arrived after a long and uneventful journey.
The Khalifah, Abd al-Malik, marvelled delightedly at the story which the amir Musa told him. When he had heard it, he cried: ‘I regret that I was not with you in the City of Brass, but, with the leave of Allah, I will go there myself soon, to see these marvels and try to unravel the mystery of that enchantment.’ After that he opened the twelve copper jars with his own hand, and, each time, a thick smoke welled out, which changed into a terrible Ifrit, who threw himself at the feet of the Khalifah, crying: ‘I ask pardon for my rebellion, from Allah and from you, O Sulaiman, Master!’ and then disappeared through the ceiling, to the great surprise of all who were present.
The Khalifah marvelled no less at the beauty of the two Daughters of the Sea: their smiles, their voices, and their unknown tongue touched his heart and moved him to generosity. He placed them in a fountain basin, where they lived for some time and then died of consumption and the excessive heat.
The amir Musa obtained leave from the Khalifah to retire to holy Jerusalem, there to pass the rest of his days in meditation upon the ancient inscriptions which he had copied so carefully on his parchments. He died in that city, after having lived as an object of veneration to all Believers; they still go to visit the tomb where he rests in the peace and benediction of Allah.
Such, O auspicious King, continued Shahrazad, is the Tale of the City of Brass.
‘A truly extraordinary tale, O Shahrazad!’ said King Shahryar. ‘I think so, O King,’ she continued, ‘but I should not like this night to pass without telling you an altogether charming adventure which happened to Ibn al-Mansur.’ ‘Who is Ibn al-Mansur? I do not know him,’ cried the astonished King. Then Shahrazad with a smile said: ‘Listen!’