kind[FN#52] of Assyria and Niniveh and their money-tributes for
three years." Then he made an end of his writ and, sealing it
with his signet-ring, sent it to its destination. But when the
missive reached Sankharib, he took it and read it, he and his
Wazirs and the Lords of his land; and all stood perplext thereat
and sore confounded; whilst the King waxed furious with excessive
fury, and he was distraught as to what he should do and how he
should act. Anon, however, he gathered together all the Shaykhs
and Elders and the Olema and doctors of law and the physicists
and philosophers and the charmers[FN#53] and the astrologers and
all such persons which were in his realm, and he let read the
epistle of Pharaoh in their presence. Then he asked them, saying,
"Who amongst you shall repair to the court of Pharaoh, lord of
Misraim, and reply to his interrogations?" But they cried, "O our
lord the King, do thou know there be no one who can loose the
knot of these difficulties save only thy Wazir Haykar; and now
that none shall offer an answer save Nadan, the son of his
sister, whom he hath informed with all his subtilty and his
science. Therefore, do thou summon him and haply he shall unravel
for thee a tangled skein so hard to untwist." Sankharib did as
they advised, and when Nadan appeared in the presence said to
him, "Look thou upon this writ and comprehend its contents." But
when the youth read it he said to the Sovran, "O my lord the
King, leave alone this folk for they point to impossibilities:
what man can base a bower upon air between heaven and earth?" As
soon as King Sankharib heard these words of Nadan, he cried out
with a mighty outcry and a violent; then, stepping down from his
throne, he sat upon ashes[FN#54] and fell to beweeping and
bewailing the loss of Haykar and crying, "Alas, for me and woe
worth the day for thee, O Caretaker of my capital and Councillor