ingly prostrated himself before the throne, and when he rose up, the caliph asked him his name. He answered that it was Baba Abdalla.
“Baba Abdalla,” explained the caliph, “I ordered you to come hither, to know from yourself why you made the indiscreet oath of which you told me. Tell me freely, for I will know the truth.”
Baba Abdalla cast himself a second time at the foot of the caliph’s throne, with his face to the ground, and when he rose up said, “Commander of the Faithful, I must humbly ask your pardon for my presumption in requiring you to box my ear. As to the extravagance of my action, I own that it must seem strange; it is however a slight penance for an enormous crime of which I have been guilty, and for which, if all the people in the world were each to give me a box on the ear, it would not be a sufficient atonement.”
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