Strona 459 z 1116

We ceased not spooning before a fair wind till we had exchanged

the sea of peril for the seas of safety and, in a few days, we

made Bassorah city, whose buildings loomed clear before us as

evening fell. But after we had retired to rest and were sound

alseep, my two sisters arose and took me up, bed and all, and

threw me into the sea: they did the same with the young Prince

who, as he could not swim, sank and was drowned and Allah

enrolled him in the noble army of Martyrs.[FN#323] As for me

would Heaven I had been drowned with him, but Allah deemed that I

should be of the saved; so when I awoke and found myself in the

sea and saw the ship making off like a dash of lightning, He

threw in my way a piece of timber which I bestrided, and the

waves tossed me to and fro till they cast me upon an island

coast, a high land and an uninhabited.