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So he revived and moaned, as he thought of his beloved Cout el Culoub! and sorrows were sore upon him. Meanwhile, Cout el Culoub abode in duresse fourscore days, at the end of which time, the Khalif chancing one day to pass the place in which she was, heard her repeating verses and saying, 'O my beloved, O Ghanim, how great is thy goodness and how chaste is thy nature!
When she saw how the case stood, she exclaimed, 'I testify that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is the Apostle of God! Then she put her hands to her face and turning to Ghanim, said in a sweet voice, 'O blessed youth, who brought me hither!
When Ghanim heard her words and knew that she was a concubine of the Caliph, he drew back, for awe of the Caliphate beset him, and sat apart from her in one of the corners of the place, blaming himself and brooding over his affair and patiencing his heart bewildered for love of one he could not possess. So he began repeating,
Then he wrote a mandate to the Emir Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, his viceroy in Damascus, to this effect: "The instant thou shalt receive this our letter, seize upon Ghanim bin Ayyub and send him to us." He questioned them concerning Ghanim and both replied, "For a year or more we have had no news of him." So they restored them to their place.
Then Jaafer went in to the Khalif and told him what had happened, and he bade lodge Cout el Culoub in a dark chamber and appointed an old woman to serve her, thinking no otherwise than that Ghanim had certainly debauched her and lain with her.
Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept with sore weeping, remembering their former prosperity and contrasting it with their present poverty and miserable condition; and their thoughts dwelt upon son and brother, whilst Kut al-Kulub wept for their weeping; and they said, "We beseech Allah to reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other but my son named Ghanim bin Ayyud!"
Then she turned to Ghanim and said to him, 'O my love, fly for thy life! 'What shall I do? said he; 'and whither shall I go, seeing that my substance and fortune are in this house? 'Delay not, answered she, 'lest thou lose both life and goods. 'O my beloved and light of my eyes, rejoined he, 'how shall I do to get away, when they have surrounded the house? 'Fear not, said she: and taking off his clothes, made him put on old and ragged ones, after which she took the empty pot and put in it a piece of bread and a saucer of meat, and placing the whole in a basket, set it on his head and said, 'Go out in this guise and fear not for me, for I know how to deal with the Khalif. So he went out amongst them, carrying the basket and its contents, and God covered him with His protection and he escaped the snares and perils that beset him, thanks to the purity of his intent.
When the Khalif heard this, he turned to his attendants and said, 'Bring hither to me Ghanim. So Jaafer went to fetch him: but Cout el Culoub forewent him to the syndic's house and told Ghanim that the Khalif had sent for him and enjoined him to eloquence and self-possession and pleasant speech.
And they exclaimed, 'We beseech God to reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other than our son Ghanim ben Eyoub! When Cout el Culoub heard this, she knew them to be the mother and sister of her beloved and wept till she lost her senses.
So they brought Ghanim, who was asleep, out of the mosque and laid him, mat and all, on the back of the camel; and his mother and sister came out with the rest of the people to look on him, but knew him not. However, after considering him, they said, 'Verily, he favours our Ghanim!
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