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So they busied themselves in building the city even as bade them Shaddad, King of the whole earth in its length and breadth; leading the fountains in channels and laying the foundations after the prescribed fashion.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shaddad bin Ad fared forth, he and his host, rejoicing in the attainment of his desire till there remained but one day's journey between him and Iram of the Pillars. So Mu'awiyah wondered greatly at Ka'ab al-Ahbar's story and said to him, "Hath any mortal ever made his way to that city?"
This they accomplished in the space of 20 years, for the number of rulers then reigning over the earth was three hundred and sixty Kings, and Shaddad presently assembled from all lands and countries architects and engineers and men of art and labourers and handicraftsmen, who dispersed over the world and explored all the wastes and words and tracts and holds.
They spent twenty years in preparing for departure, at the end of which time Shaddad set out with his host. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,
Verily, there was naught in this my wallet, save a little ruined tenement and another without a door and a dog house and a boys' school and youths playing dice and tents and tent-ropes and the cities of Bassorah and Baghdad and the palace of Shaddad bin Ad and an ironsmith's forge and a fishing-net and cudgels and pickets and girls and boys and a thousand pimps who will testify that the bag is my bag. Now when the Kurd heard my words, he wept and wailed and said, 'O my lord the Kazi, this my bag is known and what is in it is a matter of renown; for in this bag there be castles and citadels and cranes and beasts of prey and men playing chess and draughts.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah son of Abu Kilabah continued, "But the pearls were grown yellow and had lost pearly colour. After awhile Shadid died and his brother Shaddad reigned over the earth alone.
So they returned forthwith and did this in other twenty years; after which they again presented themselves before King Shaddad and informed him of the accomplishment of his will.
So they laboured at the work three hundred years; and, when they had brought it to end, they went to King Shaddad and acquainted him therewith. Then said he, "Depart and make thereon an impregnable castle, rising and towering high in air, and build around it a thousand pavilions, each upon a thousand columns of chrysolite and ruby and vaulted with gold, that in each pavilion a Wazir may dwell."
Where be the lords so high in stead? They are all done dead. Where are Kora and Haman? Where is Shaddad son of Ad? By Allah, the Reaper of lives hath reaped them and made void the lands of them. Did they provide them against the Day of Resurrection or make ready to answer the Lord of men?
'Take warning O proud, * And in length o' life vain! I'm Shaddad son of Ad, * Of the forts castellain; Lord of pillars and power,* Lord of tried might and main, Whom all earth-sons obeyed* For my mischief and bane And who held East and West* In mine awfullest reign.
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