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“They tell us,” says the beautiful slave Nozhatan, as, concealed behind a curtain of silk and of pearls, she speaks to Prince Sharkan and the wise men of the kingdom; “they tell us that the Khalif Omar set forth one night, in the company of the venerable Aslam Abou-Zeid, and that he beheld, far away from his palace, a fire that was burning; and drew near, as he thought that his presence might perhaps be of service. And he saw a poor woman who was kindling wood underneath a cauldron; and by her side were two little wretched children, groaning most piteously. And Omar said, ‘Peace unto thee, O woman! What dost thou here, alone in the night and the cold?’ And she answered, ‘Lord, I am making this water to boil, that my children may drink, who perish of hunger and cold; but for the misery we have to bear Allah will surely one day ask reckoning of Omar the Khalif.’ And the Khalif, who was in disguise, was much moved, and he said to her, ‘But dost thou think, O woman, that Omar can know of thy wretchedness, since he does not relieve it?’ And she answered, ‘Wherefore then is Omar the Khalif, if he be unaware of the misery of his people and of each one of his subjects?’ Then the Khalif was silent, and he said to Aslam Abou-Zeid, ‘Let us go quickly from hence.’ And he hastened until he had reached the storehouse of his kitchens, and he entered therein and drew forth a sack of flour from the midst of the other sacks, and also a jar that was filled to the brim with sheep-fat, and he said to Abou-Zeid, ‘O Abou-Zeid, help thou me to charge these on my back.’ But Abou-Zeid refused, and he cried, ‘Suffer that I carry them on my back, O Commander of the Faithful.’ And Omar said calmly to him, ‘Wilt thou also, O Abou-Zeid, bear the weight of my sins on the day of resurrection?’ And Abou-Zeid was obliged to lay the jar filled with fat, and the sack of flour, on the Khalif’s back. And Omar hastened, thus laden, until he had once again reached the poor woman; and he took of the flour, and he took of the fat, and placed these in the cauldron, over the fire; and with his own hands did he then get ready the food, and he quickened the fire with his breath; and as he bent over, his beard being long, the smoke from the wood forced its way through the beard of the Khalif. And at last, when the food was prepared, Omar offered it unto the woman and the two little children; and with his breath did he cool the food while they ate their fill. Then he left them the sack of flour and the jar of fat; and he went on his way, and said unto Aslam Abou-Zeid, ‘O Abou-Zeid, the light from this fire I have seen to-day has enlightened me also.'”

And it is thus that, a little further on, there speaks to a very wise king one of five pensive maidens whom this king is invited to purchase: “Know thou, O king,” she says, “that the most beautiful deed one can do is the deed that is disinterested. And so do they tell us that in Israel once were two brothers, and that one asked the other, ‘Of all the deeds thou hast done, which was the most wicked?’ And his brother replied, ‘This. As I passed a hen-roost one day, I stretched out my arm and I seized a chicken and strangled it, and then flung it back into the roost. That is the wickedest deed of my life. And thou, O my brother, what is thy wickedest action?’ And he answered, ‘That I prayed to Allah one day to demand a favour of him. For it is only when the soul is simply uplifted on high that prayer can be beautiful.'”