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conversion to Islam.  It was a wonder of wonders, answered
he;  and befell thus. Know that, not long after thy visit to
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us, a company of Muslim devotees came to the village, in which
is our monastery, and sent a youth to buy them food. He saw,
in the market, a Christian damsel selling bread, who was of
the fairest of women, and became then and there so passionately
enamoured of her, that his senses failed him and he fell on his
face in a swoon. When he revived, he returned to his companions
and told them what had happened, saying,  Go ye about your
business; I may not go with you. They blamed him and exhorted
him, but he paid no heed to them; so they left him and went on,
whilst he entered the village and seated himself at the door
of the woman s shop. She asked him what he wanted, and he told
her that he was in love with her, whereupon she turned from
him; but he abode in his place three days, without tasting
food, with his eyes fixed on her face.
When she saw that he departed not from her, she went to her
people and acquainted them with her case, and they set the boys
of the village on him, who pelted him with stones and bruised
his ribs and broke his head; but, for all this, he would not
budge. Then the people of the village took counsel together to
kill him; but one of them came to me and told me of his
condition, and I went out to him and found him lying prostrate
on the ground. So I wiped the blood from his face and carried
him to the convent, where I dressed his wounds, and he abode
with me fourteen days. But, as soon as he could walk, he left
the convent and returned to the door of the woman s shop, where
he sat gazing on her as before. When she saw him, she came out
to him and said,  By Allah, thou movest me to pity! If thou
wilt enter my faith, I will marry thee.  God forbid, answered
he,  that I should put off the faith of the Unity and enter
that of Plurality! [FN159] Quoth she,  Come in with me to my
house and take thy will of me and go thy ways in peace.  Not
so, answered he,  I will not barter the pious service of
twelve years for the lust of a moment.  Then depart from me
forthright, said she; and he rejoined,  My heart will not
suffer me to do that; whereupon she turned her face from him.
Presently the boys found him out and began to throw stones
at him; and he fell on his face, saying,  Verily, God is my
keeper, who sent down the Book and who protecteth the righteous!
[FN160] At this juncture, I sallied forth and driving away
the boys, lifted his head from the ground and heard him say,
 O my God, unite me with her in Paradise! Then I took him in
my arms, to carry him to the monastery; but he died, before
I could reach it, and I dug him a grave without the village
and buried him there.
In the middle of that night, the people of the village heard
the damsel give a great cry, and she in her bed; so they
flocked to her and questioned her of her case. Quoth she,  As I
slept, the Muslim [who ye wot of] came in to me and taking me
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by the hand, carried me to the gate of Paradise; but the keeper
denied me entrance, saying,  It is forbidden to unbelievers.
So I embraced Islam at his hands and entering with him, beheld
therein palaces and trees, such as I cannot describe to you.
Moreover, he brought me to a pavilion of jewels and said to me,
 This is my pavilion and thine, nor will I enter it except with
thee; but, after five nights, thou shalt be with me therein, if
it be the will of God the Most High. Then, putting his hand to
a tree that grew at the door of the pavilion, he plucked
therefrom two apples and gave them to me, saying,  Eat this and
keep the other, that the monks may see it. So I ate one of
them and never tasted I aught sweeter than it. Then he took my
hand and carried me back to my house; and when I awoke, I found
the taste of the apple in my mouth and the other in my hand.
So saying, she brought out the apple, and it shone in the
darkness of the night, as it were a sparkling star. So they
carried her to the monastery, where she repeated to us her
vision and showed us the apple; never saw we its like among all
the fruits of the world. Then I took a knife and cut the apple
into as many pieces as we were folk in the company; and never
knew we aught more delicious than its taste nor sweeter than
its scent; but we said,  Haply this was a devil that appeared
to her, to seduce her from her faith. Then her people took her
and went away; but she abstained from eating and drinking till
the fifth night, when she rose from her bed and going forth the
village to the grave of the young Muslim, threw herself upon it
and died.
Her people knew not what was come of her; but, on the morrow,
there came to the village two Muslim elders, clad in hair-
cloth, and with them two women in like garb, and said,  O
people of the village, with you is a woman of the friends of
God,[FN161] who died a Muslim, and we will take charge of her,
instead of you. So the damsel s family sought her and found
her dead on the young Muslim s grave; and they said,  This our
sister died in our faith, and we will take charge of her.  Not
so, rejoined the two old men;  she died a Muslim and we claim
her. And the dispute waxed hot between them, till one of the
Muslims said,  Be this the test of her faith. Let the forty
monks of the monastery come all and [essay to] lift her from
the grave. If they succeed, then she died a Nazarene; if not,
one of us shall come and lift her up, and if she yield to him,
she died a Muslim. The villagers agreed to this and fetched
the forty monks, who heartened each other and came to her, to
lift her, but could not. Then we tied a great rope about her
middle and tugged at it with our might; but the rope broke in
sunder, and she stirred nor; and the villagers came and joined
their endeavour to ours, but could not move her from her place. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]