Like Paradise itself, it seemeth, for its folk, With all its
beauties rare decked out in bright array.
I was both glad and sorry to reach the city, glad for that I was
weary with my journey and pale for weakness and anxiety, and
grieved to enter it in such sorry case. However, I went in,
knowing not whither to betake me, and fared on till I came to a
tailor sitting in his shop. I saluted him, and he returned my
salute and bade me a kindly welcome, and seeing me to be a
stranger and noting marks of gentle breeding on me, enquired how
I came thither. I told him all that had befallen me; and he was
concerned for me and said, "O my son, do not discover thyself to
any, for the King of this city is the chief of thy father's foes
and hath a mortal feud against him." Then he set meat and drink
before me, and I ate and he with me, and we talked together till
nightfall, when he lodged me in a chamber beside his own, and
brought me a bed and coverlet. I abode with him three days, at
the end of which time he said to me, "Dost thou know any craft by
which thou mayst earn thy living?" I replied, "I am a doctor of
the law and a man of learning, a scribe, a grammarian, a poet, a
mathematician and a skilled penman." Quoth he, "Thy trade is not
in demand in this country nor are there in this city any who
understand science or writing or aught but money-getting.
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