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Hardly was I assured that morning had dawned when I rose, changed

my dress, perfumed myself with essences and sweet scents and,

taking fifty dinars in a kerchief, went from the Khan Masrur to

the Zuwaylah[FN#530] gate, where I mounted an ass and said to its

owner, "Take me to the Habbaniyah." So he set off with me and

brought up in the twinkling of an eye at a street known as Darb

al-Munkari, where I said to him, "Go in and ask for the Syndic's

mansion." He was absent a while and then returned and said,

"Alight." "Go thou before me to the house," quoth I, adding,

"Come back with the earliest light and bring me home;" and he

answered, "In Allah's name;" whereupon I gave him a quarter dinar

of gold, and he took it and went his ways.