"We received your letter with joy, and send you this from
our imperial residence, the garden of superior wits. We
hope, when you look upon it, you will perceive our good
intention, and be pleased with it. Farewell."
The caliph's present was a complete suit of cloth of gold, valued at
one thousand sequins; fifty robes of rich stuff, a hundred of white
cloth, the finest of Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria; a vessel of agate,
more broad than deep, an inch thick, and half a foot wide, the bottom
of which represented in bas-relief a man with one knee on the ground,
who held a bow and an arrow, ready to discharge at a lion. He sent him
also a rich tablet, which, according to tradition, belonged to the
great Solomon.
The King of Serendib was highly gratified at the caliph's
acknowledgment of his friendship. A little time after this audience I
solicited leave to depart, and with much difficulty obtained it. The
king, when he dismissed me, made me a very considerable present. I
embarked immediately to return to Bagdad, but had not the good fortune
to arrive there so speedily as I had hoped. God ordered it otherwise.
Three or four days after my departure we were attacked by pirates, who
easily seized upon our ship because it was not a vessel of war. Some
of the crew offered resistance, which cost them their lives. But for
myself and the rest, who were not so imprudent, the pirates saved us,
and carried us into a remote island, where they sold us.
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