from me, and waxed jealous of my wealth and the quantity of
merchandise I had, and their eyes were opened covetously upon all
my property. So they took counsel to murder me and seize my
wealth, saying, "Let us slay our brother and all his monies will
be ours;" and Satan made this deed seem fair in their sight; so
when they found me in privacy (and I sleeping by my wife's side)
they took us both up and cast us into the sea. My wife awoke
startled from her sleep and, forthright becoming an
Ifritah,[FN#57] she bore me up and carried me to an island and
disappeared for a short time; but she returned in the morning and
said, "Here am I, thy faithful slave, who hath made thee due
recompense; for I bore thee up in the waters and saved thee from
death by command of the Almighty. Know--that I am a Jinniyah, and
as I saw thee my heart loved thee by will of the Lord, for I am a
believer in Allah and in His Apostle (whom Heaven bless and
preserve!). Thereupon I came to thee conditioned as thou sawest
me and thou didst marry me, and see now I have saved thee from
sinking. But I am angered against thy brothers and assuredly I
must slay them." When I heard her story I was surprised and,
thanking her for all she had done, I said, "But as to slaying my
brothers this must not be." Then I told her the tale of what had
come to pass with them from the beginning of our lives to the
end, and on hearing it quoth she, "This night will I fly as a
bird over them and will sink their ship and slay them." Quoth I,
"Allah upon thee, do not thus, for the proverb saith, O thou who
doest good to him that cloth evil, leave the evil doer to his
evil deeds. Moreover they are still my brothers." But she
rejoined, "By Allah, there is no help for it but I slay them." I
humbled myself before her for their pardon, whereupon she bore me
up and flew away with me till at last she set me down on the