I am one of those rebellious spirits that opposed the will of Heaven; all the other genii owned Solomon, the great prophet, and submitted to him. Sacar and I were the only genii that would never be guilty of a mean thing: and, to avenge himself, that great monarch sent Asaph, the son of Barakhia, his chief minister, to apprehend me. That was accordingly done. Asaph seized my person, and brought me by force before his master’s throne. Solomon, the son of David, commanded me to quit my way of living, to acknowledge his power, and to submit myself to his command; I bravely refused to obey, and told him, I would rather expose myself to his resentment, than swear fealty, and submit to him, as he required. To punish me, he shut me up in this copper vessel; and to make sure of me, that I should not break prison, he himself stamped upon this leaden cover his seal, with the great name of God engraved upon it. Then he gave the vessel to one of the genii who submitted to him, with orders to throw me into the sea, which was executed to my sorrow. During the first hundred years imprisonment, I swore that if any one would deliver me before the hundred years expired, I would make him rich, even after his death: but that century ran out, and nobody did me that good office. During the second, I made an oath, that I would open all the treasures of the earth to any one that should set me at liberty; but with no better success. In the third, I promised to make my deliverer a potent monarch, to be always near him in spirit, and to grant him every day three requests, of what nature soever they might be: but this century ran out as well as the two former, and I continued in prison. At last, being angry, or rather mad, to find myself a prisoner so long, I swore, that if afterwards any one should deliver me, I would kill him without mercy, and grant him no other favour but to choose what kind of death he would die; and, therefore, since you have delivered me to-day, I give you that choice.