A similar despatch from Mahomet had been at the same time received by Jabala, last Prince of the Ghassanide dynasty. Jabala (so the tradition runs) asked the Emperor’s leave to chastise the insolent Arab, but was bidden to swell the imperial train at Jerusalem.[315] And now Jabala was to share his Master’s fate. At the head of the Beni Ghassân, he had fought loyally by the side of the Romans, till, disheartened by the ignoble flight of Heraclius, he turned to Abu Obeida, and embraced Islam. Splendidly clad, and with a pompous following, he visited Medîna, where the people, familiar with the illustrious name, and with the panegyric of their poet Hassân on his condescension and munificence, received him with peculiar honours. He then accompanied the Caliph to perform the pilgrimage at Mecca. There a Bedouin chanced to tread, as he passed by, upon his flowing robe, causing him to stumble and fall. The haughty prince struck the offender on the face. To his amazement he was summoned before the Caliph, who ordered that the law of retaliation[316] should have its course, and that the Bedouin might have his satisfaction by returning the blow. ‘What!’ cried Jabala; ‘I, the Prince of the Ghassân, and he a common Bedouin of the desert!’ ‘Yea,’ replied Omar; ‘for in Islam all men are alike.’ Stung by the affront, Jabala disappeared during the night, and retired to Constantinople. There he returned to the profession of the Christian faith, and was hospitably entertained at the Byzantine Court. The tale has been garnished by the touch of romance; and we are even told that, pining after his old desert haunts and friends, he offered again to recant and embrace Islam, if only Omar would promise to give him one of his daughters to wife. But so much is certain, that he died an exile, and left behind him a colony at Constantinople of his Arab followers.[317] [Sidenote: Exchange of gifts between the Byzantine Queen and the Caliph’s wife.] I may notice here an interesting tradition, showing that friendly relations subsisted at times between the Caliph and the Byzantine Court. Omar’s wife, Omm Kolthûm, the daughter of Aly, sent to the Empress a royal gift of frankincense, and precious things fit for the toilet of a lady; and the Empress sent by the hands of the envoy in return a beautiful necklace. Thereupon Omar gave command to call a general assembly.[318] Then he propounded the question of the necklace. Some said, ‘The Queen is not a subject; she hath sent a present for Omm Kolthûm; let her keep it;’ other some, ‘It is but a gift in return for a gift.’ But Omar said: ‘The envoy was the envoy of the Moslems, and they have got this in return for his journey.’ So he commanded, and it was made over to the treasury; but he gave his wife the value of it from his privy purse.[319]