Commander of the Faithful;" and quoth he, "Thou liest, O
calamity![FN#55] If I be indeed the Commander of the Faithful,
bite my finger." So she came to him and bit it with all her
might, and he said to her, "It doth suffice." Then he asked the
Chief Eunuch, "Who am I?" and he answered, "Thou art the
Commander of the Faithful." So he left him and returned to his
wonderment: then, turning to a little white slave, said to him,
"Bite my ear;" and he bent his head low down to him and put his
ear to his mouth. Now the Mameluke was young and lacked sense;
so he closed his teeth upon Abu al-Hasan's ear with all his
might, till he came near to sever it; and he knew not Arabic, so,
as often as the Wag said to him, "It doth suffice," he concluded
that he said, "Bite like a vice," and redoubled his bite and made
his teeth meet in the ear, whilst the damsels were diverted from
him with hearkening to the singing-girls, and Abu al-Hasan cried
out for succour from the boy and the Caliph lost his sense for
laughter. Then he dealt the boy a cuff, and he let go his ear,
whereupon all present fell down with laughter and said to the
little Mameluke, "Art mad that thou bitest the Caliph's ear on
this wise?" And Abu al-Hasan cried to them, "Sufficeth ye not, O
ye wretched Jinns, that which hath befallen me? But the fault is
not yours: the fault is of your Chief who transmewed you from
Jinn shape to mortal shape. I seek refuge against you this night
by the Throne-verse and the Chapter of Sincerity[FN#56] and the
Two Preventives!"[FN#57] So saying the Wag put off all his
clothes till he was naked, with prickle and breech exposed and
danced among the slave-girls. They bound his hands and he
wantoned among them, while they died of laughing at him and the
Caliph swooned away for excess of laughter. Then he came to
himself and going forth the curtain to Abu al-Hasan, said to him,