the end of which time I came to a great island abounding in trees
and streams. There I landed and ate of the fruits of the island
and drank of its waters, till I was refreshed and my life
returned to me and my strength and spirits were restored and I
recited,

"Oft when thy case shows knotty and tangled skein, * Fate downs
from Heaven and straightens every ply:
In patience keep thy soul till clear thy lot * For He who ties
the knot can eke untie."

Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great
river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I
called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to
myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this
strait. If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty
to foreswear travel; and if I perish I shall be at peace and
shall rest from toil and moil." So I rose up and gathered
together great store of pieces of wood from the trees (which were
all of the finest sanders-wood, whose like is not albe I knew it
not), and made shift to twist creepers and tree-twigs into a kind
of rope, with which I bound the billets together and so contrived
a raft. Then saying, "An I be saved, 'tis of God's grace," I
embarked thereon and committed myself to the current, and it bore
me on for the first day and the second and the third after
leaving the island; whilst I lay in the raft, eating not and
drinking, when I was athirst, of the water of the river, till I
was weak and giddy as a chicken, for stress of fatigue and famine
and fear. At the end of this time I came to a high mountain,
whereunder ran the river; which when I saw, I feared for my life