The Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban.


Know, O thou Ifrit, that in days of yore and in ages long gone
before, a King called Yunan reigned over the city of Fars of the
land of the Roum.[FN#78] He was a powerful ruler and a wealthy,
who had armies and guards and allies of all nations of men; but
his body was afflicted with a leprosy which leaches and men of
science failed to heal. He drank potions and he swallowed pow
ders and he used unguents, but naught did him good and none among
the host of physicians availed to procure him a cure. At last
there came to his city a mighty healer of men and one well
stricken in years, the sage Duban highs. This man was a reader of
books, Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabian, and Syrian; and he was
skilled in astronomy and in leechcraft, the theorick as well as
the practick; he was experienced in all that healeth and that
hurteth the body; conversant with the virtues of every plant,
grass and herb, and their benefit and bane; and he understood
philosophy and had compassed the whole range of medical science
and other branches of the knowledge tree. Now this physician
passed but few days in the city, ere he heard of the King's
malady and all his bodily sufferings through the leprosy with
which Allah had smitten him; and how all the doctors and wise men
had failed to heal him. Upon this he sat up through the night in
deep thought and, when broke the dawn and appeared the morn and
light was again born, and the Sun greeted the Good whose beauties
the world adorn,[FN#79] he donned his handsomest dress and going
in to King Yunan, he kissed the ground before him: then he prayed
for the endurance of his honour and prosperity in fairest