carry me with thee, that I might divert myself with the rest and
return with you." "This may not be," answered he; but I ceased
not to solicit him and I importuned him till he consented. Then I
went out in his company, without telling any of my family[FN#94]
or servants or friends, and he took me on his back and flew up
with me so high in air, that I heard the angels glorifying God in
the heavenly dome, whereat I wondered and exclaimed, "Praised be
Allah! Extolled be the perfection of Allah!" Hardly had I made an
end of pronouncing the Tasbih--praised be Allah!--when there came
out a fire from heaven and all but consumed the company;
whereupon they fled from it and descended with curses upon me
and, casting me down on a high mountain, went away, exceeding
wroth with me, and left me there alone. As I found myself in this
plight, I repented of what I had done and reproached myself for
having undertaken that for which I was unable, saying, "There is
no Majesty and there is no Might, save in Allah, the Glorious,
the Great! No sooner am I delivered from one affliction than I
fall into a worse." And I continued in this case knowing not
whither I should go, when lo! there came up two young men, as
they were moons, each using as a staff a rod of red gold. So I
approached them and saluted them; and when they returned my
salam, I said to them, "Allah upon you twain; who are ye and what
are ye?" Quoth they, "We are of the servants of the Most High
Allah, abiding in this mountain;" and, giving me a rod of red
gold they had with them, went their ways and left me. I walked on
along the mountain-ridge staying my steps with the staff and
pondering the case of the two youths, when behold, a serpent came
forth from under the mountain, with a man in her[FN#95] jaws,
whom she had swallowed even to below his navel, and he was crying
out and saying, "Whoso delivereth me, Allah will deliver him from