Now, when he saw her, he made a rush to the door of the passage; but Abarak blocked the way, crying, ’Fool! a step backward in Aklis is death!’

And when he had wrestled with him and reined him, Abarak said, ’Haste to reach the Sword from the sons of Aklis, if thou wouldst save her.’

He drew him to the brink of the stream, and whistled a parrot’s whistle; and Shibli Bagarag beheld a boat draped with drooping white lotuses that floated slowly toward them; and when it was near, he and Abarak entered it, and saw one, a veiled figure, sitting in the stern, who neither moved to them nor spake, but steered the boat to a certain point of land across the stream, where stood an elephant ready girt for travellers to mount him; and the elephant kneeled among the reeds as they approached, that they might mount him, and when they had each taken a seat, moved off, waving his trunk.  Presently the elephant came to a halt, and went upon his knees again, and the two slid off his back, and were among black slaves that bowed to the ground before them, and led them to the shining gates of the palace in silence.  Now, on the first marble step of the palace there sat an old white-headed man dressed like a dervish, who held out at arm’s length a branch of gold with golden singing-birds between its leaves, saying, ‘This for the strongest of ye!’

Abarak exclaimed, ‘I am that one’; and he held forth his hand for the branch.

But Shibli Bagarag cried, ’Nay, ’tis mine.  Wullahy, what has not the strength of this hand overthrown?’

Then the brows of Abarak twisted; his limbs twitched, and he bawled, ’To the proof!’ waking all the echoes of Aklis.  Shibli Bagarag was tempted in his desire for the golden branch to lift the iron bar upon Abarak, when lo! the phial of Paravid fell from his vest, and he took it, and sprinkled a portion of the waters over the singing birds, and in a moment they burst into a sweet union of voices, singing, in the words of the poet: 

     When for one serpent were two asses match? 
     How shall one foe but with wiles master double? 
     So let the strong keep for ever good watch,
     Lest their strength prove a snare, and themselves a mere bubble;
     For vanity maketh the strongest most weak,
     As lions and men totter after the struggle. 
     Ye heroes, be modest! while combats ye seek,
     The cunning one trippeth ye both with a juggle.

Now, at this verse of the birds Shibli Bagarag fixed his eye on the old man, and the beard of the old man shrivelled; he waxed in size, and flew up in a blaze and with a baffled shout bearing the branch; surely, his features were those of Karaz, and Shibli Bagarag knew him by the length of his limbs, his stiff ears, and copper skin.  Then he laughed a loud laugh, but Abarak sobbed, saying, ’By this know I that I never should have seized the Sword, even though I had vanquished the illusions of Rabesqurat, which held me fast half-way.’