Moslems, for this man is of the outcasts from the gate of the mercy of the Lord of the Three Worlds! How often have I here made razzias with King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and trodden the earth of these lands!" Said Sharrkan, "Put away from thee such evil thought, hast thou not seen this Holy Man exciting the Faithful to fight, and holding spears and swords light? So slander him not, for backbiting is blameable and poisoned is the flesh of the pious.[FN#443] Look how he inciteth us to fight the foe; and, did not Almighty Allah love him, He had cast him aforetime into fearful torment." Then Sharrkan bade bring a Nubian mule for the ascetic to ride and said, "Mount, O pious man, devout and virtuous!" But the devotee refused to ride and feigned self denial, that he might attain his end; and they knew not that this holy personage was like him of whom the poet saith, "He prayeth and he fasteth for an end he doth espy; * When once his end is safely won then fast and prayer good bye."[FN#444] So the devotee ceased not to walk among the horsemen and the footmen, like a wily fox meditating guile, and began to uplift her voice, chanting the Koran and praising the Compassionate One. And they continued pressing forward till they approached the camp of Al-Islam, where Sharrkan found the Moslem in conquered plight and the Chamberlain upon the brink of falling back in flight, whilst the sword of Greece havoc dight among the Faithful, the righteous and those who work upright,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the One Hundred and Second Night,