The singing caravan shrank in a clear Green sideless tunnel of the firmament. Ali-el-Kerbelaï paused and watched Intent, even as by torchlight men spear fish, While searching flame-reflections brushed and lit The deep brown-watered caverns of his eyes, Where dim shapes moved profoundly in the pool. His listeners watched the sage in ecstasy Poise, concentrate his massive thought on Nothing, Heard his _narghilé_ bubble like a brain.... "From Hind to Misr. At Cairo's El-Azhar, The flower of Moslem scholarship, I sat Among the Sunni bastards. As a cat Watches the sun through eyelids scarce ajar, From dawn till evening prayer I laboured hard, Lolling in ambush round the great courtyard "To pounce on wingèd words. Athwart the arcade Midday in golden bars came clanging down Upon the anvil of each turbaned crown, And many minds took refuge in my shade. I was divinely hard to understand, Talking until my throat was dry as sand. "So to the mosque well--into it they pushed A dog who disagreed with me--and drew Relief what time the pigeons ceased to coo Or rustle round its rainbow-juice. We hushed Our flights of eloquence when my _roghan_ Sizzled complacent in the frying-pan. "Mashallah, what a life! Yet in this scene I found a fleck of rust upon my tongue. Propelled by Fate and my own force of lung, I flitted with two reverend _Maghrebín_ Whom I had favoured, having learned the trick Of speaking their foul breed of Arabic. "Immortal spirits led us, yea the chief _Afrit_, the crown of all the _Afarit_. We crossed the great Sahara like a street. My fame allows me licence to be brief. Enough. Whatever any sceptic says, I still maintain I spent a year at Fez. "Here was a sect that said one God was three. I plied Moriscos who had tasted two Beliefs perforce, I even asked a Jew To make this strange _Tariqah_ clear; but he-- By this judge Christians--he could not explain, Although his father had been burnt in Spain. "Ah, how I studied in that narrow city, Whose walls are changeless as a Persian law, And full of loopholes. To the seers I saw Is due the gamut of my human pity. We stirred the puddles of the human mind Till none could see the bottom but the blind. "Now Shaitan tempted me. I fell for once, A venial sin.... I journeyed to Stamboul To plumb the errors of the _Greegi_ school. 'Twas there I read the Stagyrite, a dunce, The Frankish ruler of theology, And father of a dunce, Alfarabi.