She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince of True Believers, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, hearing of the lady’s beauty and loveliness, sent to ask her in marriage; and she wrote him in reply a letter, in which, after the glorification of Allah and benediction of His Prophet, she said, “But afterwards. Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that the dog hath lapped in the vase.” When the Caliph read her answer, he laughed and wrote to her, citing his saying (whom may Allah bless and keep!) “If a dog lap in the vessel of one of you, let him wash seven times, once thereof with earth,” and adding, “Wash the affront from the place of use.”[FN#97] With this she could not gainsay him; so she replied to him, saying (after praise and blessing), “O Commander of the Faithful I will not consent save on one condition, and if thou ask me what it is, I reply that Al-Hajjaj lead my camel to the town where thou tarriest barefoot and clad as he is.”[FN#98] When the Caliph read her letter, he laughed long and loudly and sent to Al-Hajjaj, bidding him to do as she wished. He dared not disobey the order, so he submitted to the Caliph’s commandment and sent to Hind, telling her to make ready for the journey. So she made ready and mounted her litter, when Al-Hajjaj with his suite came up to Hind’s door and as she mounted and her damsels and eunuchs rode around her, he dismounted and took the halter of her camel and led it along, barefooted, whilst she and her damsels and tirewomen laughed and jeered at him and made mock of him. Then she said to her tirewoman, “Draw back the curtain of the litter;” and she drew back the curtain, till Hind was face to face with Al-Hajjaj, whereupon she laughed at him and he improvised this couplet, “Though now thou jeer, O Hind, how many a night * I’ve left thee wakeful sighing for the light.” And she answered him with these two, “We reck not, an our life escape from bane, * For waste of wealth and gear that went in vain: Money may be regained and rank re-won * When one is cured of malady and pain.” And she ceased not to laugh at him and make sport of him, till they drew near the city of the Caliph, when she threw down a dinar with her own hand and said to Al-Hajjaj, “O camel-driver, I have dropped a dirham; look for it and give it to me.” So he looked and seeing naught but the dinar, said, “This is a dinar.” She replied, “Nay, ’tis a dirham.” But he said, “This is a dinar.” Then quoth she, “Praised be Allah who hath given us in exchange for a paltry dirham a dinar! Give it us.” And Al-Hajjaj was abashed at this. Then he carried her to the palace of the Commander of the Faithful, and she went in to him and became his favourite.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Six Hundred and Eighty-third Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that men also tell a tale anent KHUZAYMAH BIN BISHR AND IKRIMAH AL-FAYYAZ.[FN#99]