needle she pricked certain letters on his right wrist, and afterwards
pricked the same letters on a door in the wall. Then she said to him,
'Is it in thy power to make those letters speak?'

He answered, 'We will prove how that may be.'

So he flung some drops from the phial over the letters, and they glowed
the colour of blood and flashed with a report, and it was as if a fiery
forked-tongue had darted before them and spake the words written, and
they were, 'This is the crown of him who bath achieved his aim and
resteth here.' Thereupon, she stuck the needle in the door, and he
pulled the thread, and the door drew apart, and lo! a small chamber, and
on a raised cushion of blue satin a glittering crown, thick with jewels
as a frost, such as Ambition pineth to wear, and the knees of men weaken
and bend beholding, and it lanced lights about it like a living sun.
Beside the cushion was a vacant throne, radiant as morning in the East,
ablaze with devices in gold and gems, a seat to fill the meanest soul
with sensations of majesty and tempt dervishes to the sitting posture.
Shibli Bagarag was intoxicated at the sight, and he thought, 'Wah! but if
I sit on this throne and am a king, with that crown I can command men and
things! and I have but to say, Fetch Noorna, my betrothed, from yonder
pillar in the midst of the uproarious sea!--Let the hairy Shagpat be
shaved! and behold, slaves, thousands of them, do my bidding! Wullahy,
this is greatness!' Now, he made a rush to the throne, but the damsels
held him back, crying, 'Not for thy life till we have crowned thee, our
master and lord!'

Then they took the crown and crowned him with it; and he sat upon the
throne calmly, serenely, like a Sultan of the great race accustomed to
sovereignty, tempering the awfulness of his brows with benignant glances.