" "By
Allah," said I, "I know nought but what I have told thee!" And he
said, "Gird thy middle and take axe and cord and go and cut
firewood in the desert for thy living, till God send thee relief,
and tell none who thou art, or they will kill thee." Then he
bought me an axe and a cord and gave me in charge to certain
woodcutters; with whom I went out into the desert and cut wood
all day and carried home a load on my head. I sold it for half a
dinar, with part of which I bought victual and laid up the rest.
On this wise I lived a whole year, at the end of which time I
went out one day into the desert, according to my wont, and
straying from my companions, happened on a tract full of trees
and running streams, in which there was abundance of firewood; so
I entered and coming on the gnarled stump of a great tree, dug
round it with my axe and cleared the earth away from it.
Presently, the axe struck upon a ring of brass; so I cleared away
the earth, till I uncovered a wooden trap-door, which I raised
and there appeared beneath it a stair I descended the stair, till
I came to a door, which I opened and found myself in a vaulted
hall of goodly structure, wherein was a damsel like a pearl of
great price, whose aspect banished pain and care and anxiety from
the heart and whose speech healed the troubled soul and
captivated the wise and the intelligent.
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