The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Vol. 1

"...such a scoundrel and son of a whore." Then he went up to the next door and sent in a similar message to the master of the house, who denied he was home just as the first had done. At this, he began repeating these verses:

He is gone who, when you went to his gate,
Fed your famished stomach with his boiled and roast meats.

When he had finished his verse, he said, "By Allah, I have no choice but to try them all; perhaps there is one among them who will stand by me in place of all the rest." So he went the round of all ten, but not one of them would open his door to him, show himself, or even offer him a crust of bread. At this, he recited:

A man is like a tree while he lives in wealth,
And while he bears fruit, people will run to him:
But when the tree is stripped of the fruit it bore,
They leave it to suffer in the dust and sun.
Ruin to everyone in this age! I find
Ten rogues for every righteous one.

Then he returned to his slave-girl, and his grief had grown even more heavy. She said to him, "O my lord, did I not tell you that no one would help you at all?" And he replied, "By Allah, not one of them would show me his face or even acknowledge me!"

"O my lord," she said, "sell some of the movable possessions and household items, such as the pots and pans, little by little; and spend the money until Almighty Allah provides." So he sold everything that was in the house until nothing remained. Then he turned to Anis al-Jalis and asked her, "What shall we do now?"

She answered, "O my lord, it is my advice that you get up at once, take me down to the bazar A market., and sell me. You know that your father bought me for ten thousand dinars Gold coins.; perhaps Allah will open a way for you to get the same price. And if it is His will to bring us together once more, we shall meet again."

"O Anis al-Jalis," he cried, "by Allah, it is no small matter for me to be parted from you for even a single hour!"

"By Allah, O my lord," she replied, "it is not easy for me either, but necessity has its own law, as the poet said:

Need drives a man onto winding roads,
And paths of uncertain direction and scope:
No man will entrust his weight to a rope¹,
Except for a reason that calls for a rope.

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¹ The Arabic word Sabab literally means "a rope," but it also means "a cause" or "reason."