It happened that one day a mighty tempest,
With thunderings and lightnings, rain and turmoil,
Brake o'er the host and troubled Rashnawád;
The earth was flooded and the welkin roared;
Men everywhere were fleeing from the downpour,
And making for some shelter on the waste.
Dáráb, like others, was discomfited,
And sought to escape the storm. He looked around,
Beheld a heap of ruins, and observed
A lofty vault, though old and ruinous,
One that had borne the brunt of wind and weather,
Still standing in their midst. He slept perforce
Therein for he was all alone and friendless.
The general was going on his rounds,
And passing by the vault, when from the waste
A voice fell on his ear and made him quail
For his own life; it was a voice that said:—
“O ruined vault! be very circumspect!
Be careful of the monarch of Írán.
He had not any shelter, friend, or mate,
And so he came and slumbered under thee.”
Thought Rashnawád: “'Tis thunder on the blast.”
Then from the desert came the voice again:
“O vault!” it said, “close not the eye of wisdom,
For 'neath thee is the son of Sháh Bahman.
Fear not the rain and keep these words in mind.”

A third time that same voice came to his ear;
His heart was strangely straitened at the sound.
He asked a counsellor: “What thing is this?
Some one must needs go thither. Ascertain
Who is reposing there in such concern
About himself.”

They went and saw a youth

Of prudent aspect and heroic mien,
His charger and his garments wet and worn,
And he was couching on the darksome dust.
They told the general, whose heart was stirred,
And he commanded: “Summon him forthwith,
And make him hear.”

They cried: “Awake, thou sleeper!

Arouse thee from thy slumber on the dust.”
He mounted, and at once the vault fell in!
The leader of the army of the Sháh,
On witnessing a portent such as that,
And having scanned Dáráb from head to foot,
Went with him quickly to the camp-enclosure,
Exclaiming: “O just Judge, the only God!
None hath beheld this wonder heretofore,
Or heard of such from the experienced chiefs.”
Then garments were supplied at his behest,
And a pavilion got in readiness.
They made a fire huge as a hill and burned
Much aloe-wood and musk and ambergris.
Whenas the sun rose o'er the mountain-tops
The general made all ready for the march.
He bade an archimage—his chief adviser—
To bring a change of raiment, Arab steed
With golden trappings, mail, and gold-sheathed sword.
These he presented to Dáráb, and asked:
“O lion-hearted man and warrior!
Who art thou? Of what country and what race?
'Twere well that thou shouldst tell me all the truth.”
Dáráb, on hearing this, narrated all,
Disclosing every secret of his past;

Just as the goodwife had acquainted him,
So told he everything to Rashnawád,
About the ark, the ruby on his arm,
The money and brocade that lay beside him,
And of his rest and slumber in the vault.
Then Rashnawád dispatched a man forthwith,
And to that messenger he said: “Bring hither,
As swift as wind, both Mars and Venus, bring
The launderer, his wife, and signet-ring.”