The doors being all open, or but half shut, I surveyed some other apartments, that were as beautiful as those I had already seen.  I looked into the offices and store-rooms, which were full of riches.  In short, the wonders that everywhere appeared so wholly engrossed my attention, that I forgot my ship and my sisters, and thought of nothing but gratifying my curiosity.  In the mean time night came on, which reminded me that it was time to retire.  I proposed to return the way I had entered, but I could not find it; I lost myself among the apartments; and perceiving I was come back again to the large room, where the throne, the couch, the large diamond, and the torches stood, I resolved to take my night’s lodging there, and to depart the next morning early, to get aboard my ship.  I laid myself down upon a couch, not without some dread to be alone in a desolate place; and this fear hindered my sleep.

About midnight I heard a voice like that of a man reading the Koraun, after the same manner, and in the same tone as it is read in our mosques.  Being extremely glad to hear it, I immediately arose, and taking a torch in my hand, passed from one chamber to another on that side from whence the sound proceeded.  I came to the closet-door, and stood still, not doubting that it came from thence.  I set down my torch upon the ground, and looking through a window, found it to be an oratory.  It had, as we have in our mosques, a niche, to direct us whither we are to turn to say our prayers:  there were also lamps hung up, and two candlesticks with large tapers of white wax burning.

I saw a little carpet laid down like those we have to kneel upon when we say our prayers, and a comely young man sat on this carpet reading with great devotion the Koraun, which lay before him on a desk.  At this sight I was transported with admiration.  I wondered how it came to pass that he should be the only living creature in a town where all the people were turned into stones, and I did not doubt but there was something in the circumstance very extraordinary.

The door being only half shut, I opened it, went in, and standing upright before the niche, I repeated this prayer aloud:  “Praise be to God, who has favoured us with a happy voyage, and may he be graciously pleased to protect us in the same manner, until we arrive again in our own country.  Hear me, O Lord, and grant my request.”

The young man turned his eyes towards me, and said, “My good lady, pray let me know who you are, and what has brought you to this desolate city?  And, in return, I will you who I am, what has happened to me, why the inhabitants of this city are reduced to the state you see them in, and why I alone am safe in the midst of such a terrible disaster.”

I told him in a few words whence I had come, what had made me undertake the voyage, and how I safely arrived at the port after twenty days’ sailing; when I had done, I prayed him to perform his promise, and told him how much I was struck by the frightful desolation which I had seen in the city.