purpose I arose and went with him, till we arrived at a goodly
house and a great door. He opened the door and I entered,
whereupon he bolted it behind me and would have gone in; but I
feared with exceeding fear and foregoing him to the second door,
whereby he would have had me enter, bolted it and cried out at
him, saying, 'By Allah, an thou open not to me, I will slay
thee;[FN#84] for I am none of those whom thou canst readily
cozen!' 'What deemest thou of cozening?' 'Verily, I am startled
by the loneliness of the house and the lack of any keeper at its
door; for I see none appear.' 'O my lord, this is a private
door.' 'Private or public, open to me.' So he opened to me and I
went out and had gone but a little way from the door when I met a
woman, who said to me, 'A long life was fore-ordained to thee;
else hadst thou never come forth of yonder house.' I asked, 'How
so?' and she answered, 'Enquire of thy friend Such-an-one,'
(naming thee), 'and he will acquaint thee with strange things.'
So, Allah upon thee, O my friend, tell me what befel thee of
wondrous and marvellous, for I have told thee what befel me." "O
my brother, I am bound by a solemn oath." "O my friend, false
thine oath and tell me."[FN#85] "Indeed, I dread the issue of
this." But he urged me till I told him all, whereat he marvelled.
Then I went away from him and abode a long while, without further
news. One day, I met another of my friends who said to me, "A
neighbour of mine hath invited me to hear singers" but I
said:--"I will not foregather with any one." However, he
prevailed upon me; so we repaired to the place and found there a
person, who came to meet us and said, "Bismillah!"[FN#86] Then he
pulled out a key and opened the door, whereupon we entered and he
locked the door after us. Quoth I, "We are the first of the folk;
but where be the singers' voices?" He replied, "They're within