At this Musa wept with sore weeping and, going on to the fourth tablet, he read inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam, how long shall thy Lord bear with thee and thou every day sunken in the sea of thy folly? Hath it then been stablished unto thee that some day thou shalt not die? O son of Adam, let not the deceits of thy days and nights and times and hours delude thee with their delights; but remember that death lieth ready for thee ambushing, fain on thy shoulders to spring, nor doth a day pass but he morneth with thee in the morning and nighteth with thee by night. Beware, then, of his onslaught and make provision there-against. As was with me, so it is with thee; thou wastest thy whole life and squanderest the joys in which thy days are rife. Hearken, therefore, to my words and put thy trust in the Lord of Lords; for in the world there is no stability; it is but as a spider’s web to thee.” And at the foot of the tablet were written these couplets, “Where is the man who did those labours ply * And based and built and reared these walls on high? Where be the castles’ lords? Who therein dwelt * Fared forth and left them in decay to lie. All are entombed, in pledge against the day * When every sin shall show to every eye. None but the Lord Most High endurance hath, * Whose Might and Majesty shall never die.” When the Emir read this, he swooned away and presently coming to himself marvelled exceedingly and wrote it down. Then he drew near the fifth tablet and behold, thereon was graven, “O son of Adam, what is it that distracteth thee from obedience of thy Creator and the Author of thy being, Him who reared thee whenas thou west a little one, and fed thee whenas thou west full-grown? Thou art ungrateful for His bounty, albeit He watcheth over thee with His favours, letting down the curtain of His protection over thee. Needs must there be for thee an hour bitterer than aloes and hotter than live coals. Provide thee, therefore, against it; for who shall sweeten its gall or quench its fires? Bethink thee who forewent thee of peoples and heroes and take warning by them, ere thou perish.” And at the foot of the tablet were graven these couplets, “Where be the Earth-kings who from where they bode, * Sped and to grave yards with their hoardings yode: Erst on their mounting-days there hadst beheld * Hosts that concealed the ground whereon they rode: How many a king they humbled in their day! * How many a host they led and laid on load! But from th’ Empyrean’s Lord in haste there came * One word, and joy waxed grief ere morning glowed.”