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So they ate their fill and he left the rest with her. Then he turned to me and said, "O Aslam, I see it was indeed hunger made them weep; and I am glad I did not go away without finding out the reason of the light I saw." It is said that Omar passed, one day, by a flock of sheep, kept by a slave, and asked the latter to sell him a sheep. 'They are not mine, replied the shepherd.
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 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."
Now thy son hath taken of the tribute, yet have I seen none rebuke him nor take the money from him. And Othman said, 'Where wilt thou find the like of Omar? Again, Zeid ben Aslam relates of his father that he said, 'I went out one night with Omar, and we walked on till we espied a blazing fire in the distance.
"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.
Othman asked 'Why weepest thou?; and Ziyad answered, 'I once brought Omar bin al-Khattab the like of this and his son took a dirham, where upon Omar bade snatch it from his hand. Quoth Omar, 'O Aslam, I think these must be travellers who are suffering from the cold.
Then he turned to me and said, 'O Aslam, I see it was indeed hunger made them weep; and I am glad I did not go away ere I found out the cause of the light I saw. And Shahrazad per ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Sixty-fourth Night,
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