Quoth the king, “O Saad, fetch him to me, for indeed thou describest to me a masterful man."[FN#76] And he answered, saying, “By Allah, O my lord, hadst thou but seen our case with Hudheifeh, what while he challenged me to the field of war and the stead of thrusting and smiting and I held back from doing battle with him!  Then, whenas I thought to go forth to him, behold, a cavalier gave loose to his bridle-rein and called out to me, saying, ’O Saad, wilt thou suffer me to fill thy room in waging war with him and I will ransom thee with myself?’ And I said, ‘By Allah, O youth, whence cometh thou?’ Quoth he, ’This is no time for thy questions.’” Then he recounted to the king all that had passed between himself and El Abbas from first to last; whereupon quoth Ins ben Cais, “Bring him to me in haste, so we may learn his tidings and question him of his case.”  “It is well,” answered Saad, and going forth of the king’s presence, repaired to his own house, where he put off his harness of war and took rest for himself.

To return to El Abbas, when he alighted from his charger, he put off his harness of war and rested awhile; after which he brought out a shirt of Venetian silk and a gown of green damask and donning them, covered himself with a turban of Damietta stuff and girt his middle with a handkerchief.  Then he went out a-walking in the thoroughfares of Baghdad and fared on till he came to the bazaar of the merchants.  There he found a merchant, with chess before him; so he stood watching him and presently the other looked up at him and said to him, “O youth, what wilt thou stake upon the game?” And he answered, “Be it thine to decide.”  “Then be it a hundred dinars,” said the merchant, and El Abbas consented to him, whereupon quoth he, “O youth, produce the money, so the game may be fairly stablished.”  So El Abbas brought out a satin purse, wherein were a thousand dinars, and laid down an hundred dinars therefrom on the edge of the carpet, whilst the merchant did the like, and indeed his reason fled for joy, whenas he saw the gold in El Abbas his possession.

The folk flocked about them, to divert themselves with watching the play, and they called the bystanders to witness of the wager and fell a-playing.  El Abbas forbore the merchant, so he might lead him on, and procrastinated with him awhile; and the merchant won and took of him the hundred dinars.  Then said the prince, “Wilt thou play another game?” And the other answered, “O youth, I will not play again, except it be for a thousand dinars.”  Quoth the prince, “Whatsoever thou stakest, I will match thy stake with the like thereof.”  So the merchant brought out a thousand dinars and the prince covered them with other thousand.  Then they fell a-playing, but El Abbas was not long with him ere he beat him in the square of the elephant,[FN#77] nor did he leave to do thus till he had beaten him four times and won of him four thousand dinars.