"Spare me, so may Allah spare thee! Indeed I have a husband." But
he drew his dudgeon and said to her, "An thou obey me not, I will
smite thee and slay thee." When she saw his frowardness, she
wrote on the ground in the sand with her finger, saying, "O Abu
Sabir, thou hast not ceased to be patient, till thy good is gone
from thee and thy children and now thy wife, who was more
precious in thy sight than everything and than all thy monies,
and indeed thou abidest in thy sorrow the whole of thy life long,
so thou mayest see what thy patience will profit thee." Then the
horseman took her, and setting her behind him, went his way. As
for Abu Sabir, when he returned, he saw not his wife but he read
what was writ upon the ground, wherefore he wept and sat awhile
sorrowing. Then said he to himself, "O Abu Sabir, it behoveth
thee to be patient, for haply there shall betide thee an affair
yet sorer than this and more grievous;" and he went forth
a-following his face,[FN#168] like to one lovedistraught and
passion-madded, till he came to a gang of labourers working upon
the palace of the king, by way of forced labour.[FN#169] When the
overseers saw him, they laid hold of him and said to him, "Work
thou with these folk at the palace of the king; else we will
imprison thee for life." So he fell to working with them as a
labourer and every day they gave him a bannock of bread. He
wrought with them a month's space, till it chanced that one of
the labourers mounted a ladder and falling, brake his leg;
whereupon he cried out and shed tears. Quoth Abu Sabir to him,
"Have patience and weep not; for in thine endurance thou shalt
find ease." But the man said to him, "How long shall I have
patience?" And he answered, saying, "Long-suffering bringeth a
man forth of the bottom of the pit and seateth him on the throne
of the kingdom." It so fortuned that the king was seated at the