“I, your slave, Sultan of this Ceylon, am son of the late Murtazá Sháh. I was twenty years old when I ascended my ancestral throne on the death of my father, I strove earnestly in the ordinance of the realm, and wrought manfully and skilfully to perform the duties of kingship. One night my father came (in a vision) to my side and addressed me, saying, ‘My son, I have a last request to make of thee; but I will not tell it thee save thou undertake to accomplish it without knowing what it be; but if thou swear by God to accomplish it, I will declare it to thee.’ As it is beyond doubt that fathers or mothers would not urge their children to unbecoming deeds, I without hesitation swore to accomplish it. Then my father took me by the hand and led me to the treasure which thou hast seen. When I beheld it I abode bewildered at the greatness of the riches. On that empty stand was a paper in my father’s handwriting; this I took and read, and these words were inscribed thereon: ‘My son, in that thou hast undertaken to fulfil it, if thou accomplish not this my last request, be my two hands upon thy collar. Thou shalt go hence to Cairo; there in the Roumelia Square, hard by the Erdebíl Fountain, is a revered personage whom they call the Shaykh Mubarak. He is master of the secret sciences, and he it is who hath given me all this treasure. Lay thy face in the dust at his feet, and with uttermost humbleness beg of him this lacking image; for the image which still remains is worth many treasures like to this. If thou sit upon my throne without having procured that image, thou shalt be a rebel against me.’ I marvelled at these words of my father, and seeing he had heaped up such vast riches, he should still even after his death be so driven as to urge upon me the toils of a journey and the many dangers that must attend it, only that that stand might not remain empty. But as no escape was possible, I constrainedly determined to set out, and having appointed my vezir regent, I disguised myself and started for Cairo.