Then he called his servant Aamir and said to him, “Saddle the horses.”  When the nurse heard his words and indeed [she saw that] Aamir brought him the horses and they were resolved upon departure, the tears ran down upon her cheeks and she said to him, “By Allah, thy separation is grievous to me, O solace of the eye!” Then said she, “Where is the goal of thine intent, so we may know thy news and solace ourselves with thy report?” Quoth he, “I go hence to visit Akil, the son of my father’s brother, for that he hath his sojourn in the camp of Kundeh ben Hisham, and these twenty years have I not seen him nor he me; wherefore I purpose to repair to him and discover his news and return hither.  Then will I go hence to Yemen, if it be the will of God the Most High.”

So saying, he took leave of the woman and her husband and set out, intending for Akil, his father’s brother’s son.  Now there was between Baghdad and Akil’s abiding-place forty days’ journey; so El Abbas settled himself on the back of his courser and his servant Aamir mounted also and they fared forth on their way.  Presently, El Abbas turned right and left and recited the following verses: 

I am the champion-slayer, the warrior without peer; My foes I
     slay, destroying the hosts, when I appear. 
Tow’rds El Akil my journey I take; to visit him, The wastes in
     praise and safety I traverse, without fear,
And all the desert spaces devour, whilst to my rede, Or if in
     sport or earnest,[FN#93] still Aamir giveth ear. 
Who letteth us or hind’reth our way, I spring on him, As
     springeth lynx or panther upon the frighted deer;
With ruin I o’erwhelm him and abjectness and woe And cause him
     quaff the goblet of death and distance drear. 
Well-ground my polished sword is and thin and keen of edge And
     trenchant, eke, for smiting and long my steel-barbed spear. 
So fell and fierce my stroke is, if on a mountain high It lit,
     though all of granite, right through its midst ’twould
     shear. 
Nor troops have I nor henchmen nor one to lend me aid Save God,
     to whom, my Maker, my voice in praise I rear. 
’Tis He who pardoneth errors alike to slave and free; On Him is
     my reliance in good and evil cheer.

Then they fell to journeying night and day, and as they went, behold, they sighted a camp of the camps of the Arabs.  So El Abbas enquired thereof and was told that it was the camp of the Benou Zuhreh.  Now there were around them sheep and cattle, such as filled the earth, and they were enemies to El Akil, the cousin of El Abbas, upon whom they still made raids and took his cattle; wherefore he used to pay them tribute every year, for that he availed not to cope with them.  When El Abbas came near the camp, he dismounted from his courser and his servant Aamir also dismounted; and they set down the victual and ate their sufficiency and rested awhile of the day.  Then said the prince to Aamir, “Fetch water and give the horses to drink and draw water for us in thy water-bag, by way of provision for the road.”