Asked she, “Give me tidings of a thing which is not of mankind nor of the Jann-kind, neither of the beasts nor of the birds?” He answered saying, “This whereof thou speakest is that mentioned by Solomon, to with the Louse,[FN#201], and secondly the Ant.”  She enquired, “Tell me to what end Almighty Allah created the creation and for what aim of wisdom did He quicken this creation and for what object did He cause death to be followed by resurrection and resurrection by the rendering men’s accounts?” He answered saying, “God created all creatures that they might witness His handicraft, and he did them die that they might behold his absolute dominion and He requickened them to the end that they learn His All-Might, and He decreed their rendering account that they might consider His wisdom and His justice.”  She questioned him saying, “Tell me concerning three, of whom my first was not born of father and mother and yet died; and my second was begotten of sire and born of woman yet died not, and my third was born of father and mother yet died not by human death?” He answered saying, “The first were Adam and Eve,[FN#202] the second was Elias[FN#203] the Prophet and the third was Lot’s wife who died not the death of the general, for that she was turned into a pillar of salt.”  Quoth she, “Relate to me concerning one who in this world had two names?” and he answered saying, “This be Jacob, sire of the Twelve Tribes, to whom Allah vouchsafed the title of Israel, which is Man with El or God."[FN#204] She said, “Inform me concerning the Nakus, or the Gong,[FN#205] who was the inventor thereof and at what time was it first struck in this world?” He answered saying, “The Gong was invented by Noah, who first smote upon it in the Ark.”  And after this she stinted not to question him nor he to ree her riddles until evening fell, when quoth the King’s daughter to the Linguist-dame, “Say thou to the young man that he may now depart, and let him come to me betimes next morning when, if I conquer him, I will give him drink of the cup his fellows drained; and, should he vanquish me, I will become his wife.”  Then the Tarjumanah delivered her message word for word, and the Youth went forth from the Princess with fire aflame in his heart and spent the longest of nights hardly believing that the morn would morrow.  But when day broke and the dawn came with its sheen and shone upon all mankind, he arose from his sleep and fared with the first light to the palace where the King’s daughter bade the Linguist-dame introduce him, and when he came in ordered him to be seated.  As soon as he had taken seat she gave her commands to the Tarjumanah, who said, “My lady directeth thee to inform her what may be the tree bearing a dozen boughs, each clothed with thirty leaves and these of two colours, one half white and the other moiety black?” He answered saying, “Now that tree is the year, and its twelve branches are the dozen months, while the thirty leaves upon each of these are the thirty