“Except this dog, I had no one else to weep for me; his state was such that he rolled on every one’s feet and barked.  Some beat him with sticks, and others with stones, but he would not stir from that place.  I stood with my face towards the kibla, [300] and addressing myself to God, I said, ’At this moment I have no one except Thee to intervene and save the innocent!  Now, if Thou savest, I am saved.’  After this address, I repeated the prayer of shahadat, [301] staggered, and then fell.  By the dispensation of God, it so happened, that the king of that country was attacked with the cholic; the nobles and physicians assembled; whatever remedies they applied, produced no good.  One holy man said, ’The best of all remedies is, that alms be given to the destitute, and that all prisoners should be released; for in prayer there is greater efficacy than in physic.’  Instantly the royal messengers went off running towards the prisons.

“By chance, some one came to that plain [where I was], and seeing a crowd, he ascertained [from a bystander] that they were placing some person on the stake.  Immediately on hearing this, he galloped up to the stake, and cut the ropes with his sword.  He threatened and chastised the magistrate’s soldiers, and said, “At such a time, when the king is in such a state, are you going to put a creature of God to death?’ and he got me released.  Upon which, these two brothers went again to the magistrate, and urged him to put me to death.  As this official had already taken a bribe from them, he [readily] acquiesced to do whatever they dictated.

“The magistrate said to them, ’Rest satisfied; I will now confine him in such a way, that he will of himself, from want of food and drink, die of sheer exhaustion, and no one will know anything about it.’  They re-seized me, and kept me In a corner.  About a kos without the city was a mountain, in which, in the time of Solomon, the divs had dug a deep and narrow well; it was called Solomon’s prison.  Whoever fell greatly under the king’s wrath, was confined in that well, where he perished of himself [from hunger and thirst].  To shorten my story, these two brothers and the magistrate’s soldiers carried me at night, in silence, to the mountain, and having cast me into that pit, and thus set their own minds at ease, they returned.  O king, this dog went with me, and when they put me into the well, he remained lying on its brink.  I lay some time senseless in the inside, and then a little consciousness returned to me; I conceived myself to be dead, and that place my grave At this time I heard the sounds of two men’s voices, who were saying something to each other; I concluded that these were Nakir and Munkir, [302] who were come to question me; and I likewise heard the rustling of a rope, as if some one had let it down there.  I was wondering, and began to feel about me on the ground, when some bones came into my gripe.