fires flaming, and his smoke ascending; and he approached, and smote me with a flaming fire; and his arrow prevailed over my fire. He cried out at me with a prodigious cry, so that I imagined the heaven had fallen, and the mountains shook at his voice. Then he commanded his companions, and they charged upon us all together: we also charged upon them: the fires rose and the smoke ascended, the hearts of the combatants were almost cleft asunder, and the battle raged. The birds fought in the air; and the wild beasts in the dust; and I contended with Ed-Dimiryat until he wearied me and I wearied him; after which my companions and troops were enervated, and my tribes were routed. I flew from before Ed-Dimiryat; but he followed me a journey of three months, until he overtook me. I had fallen down through fatigue, and he rushed upon me, and made me a prisoner. So I said to him: ‘By Him who hath exalted thee and abased me, pity me, and take me before Solomon.’ But when I came before Solomon, he met me in a most evil manner: he caused this pillar to be brought, and hollowed it, and put me in it, and sealed me with his signet; after which, he chained me, and Ed-Dimiryat conveyed me to this place, where he set me down as thou seest me; and this pillar is my prison until the day of resurrection.”
The party therefore wondered at him, and at the horrible nature of his form; and the Emeer Moosa said: ‘‘There is no deity but God!” And the Sheikh Abd-Es-Samad said to the efreet: “O thou, I ask thee concerning a thing of which do thou inform us.” The efreet replied: ‘‘Ask concerning what thou wilt.” And the sheikh said: “Are there in this place any of the efreets confined in bottles of brass from the time of Solomon?” He answered: “Yes, in the Sea of El-Karkar, where are a people of the descendants of Noah, whose country the deluge reached
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