Say to him who riddles questions that I am the discloser of their secret which he hides.

Know that the deceased, in whose case the law preferred the brother of his spouse to the son of his father,

Was a man who, of his free consent, gave his son in marriage to his own mother-in-law; nothing strange in it.

Then the son died, but she was already pregnant by him, and gave birth to a son like him;

And he was the son’s son without dispute, and brother of the grandfather’s spouse without equivocation.

But the son of the true-born son is nearer to the grandfather, and takes precedence in the inheritance over the brother;

And therefore, when he died, the eighth of the inheritance was adjudged to the wife for her to take possession;

And the grandson, who was really her brother by her mother, took the rest;

And the full brother was left out of the inheritance, and we say thou hast only to bewail him.

This is my decision which every judge who judges will pattern by, every lawyer.

Said Abû Zayd: Now when he had understood the answer and verified its correctness, he said to me, “Remember thy family and the night, so gather up thy skirt and be beforehand with the rain-flood.”—I said, “I am in the house of exile, and in sheltering me lies the best of offering,—Especially as the van of the darkness has now drooped, and the thunder is lauding God in the cloud.”—He said, “Be off (may God keep thee) whither thou wilt; but desire not to pass the night here.”—I said, “Why is that, seeing the emptiness of thy habita­tion?”—He said, “Because I looked well how thou didst swallow what was before thee, until thou didst leave and let alone nothing;—And I saw that thou dost not look to thy well-being, nor take care for the keeping of thy health.—Now, he that exceeds in what thou hast exceeded, and fills his belly as thou hast filled it, escapes not a weakening surfeit or a killing cholera.—So, by Allah, leave me alone and go forth from me while thou art still kept from harm;—For by Him who gives life and death there is no lodging for thee in my house.”— Now, when I had heard his oath, and made proving of him, I went forth from his house perforce, and with a victualling of sadness:—And the sky rained upon me, and the darkness made me to stumble, and the dogs barked after me, and the doors repulsed me,—Until the kindness of fate sent me to thee, and thanks to its white hand.

Then I said to him, “Charming is this ordained meeting with thee to my glad heart.”—And he began to be diverse in his stories, and to mix the laughable with the mournful; until the first of the morning dawned, and the caller of “Blessing” made his cry.— Whereupon he made ready to respond to the caller, and then turned to bid me farewell.—But I checked him from departure and said, “Hospitality is three days.”—But he adjured God, and restricted himself by a vow; then he sought the outlet, and indited as he lingered:

Visit him thou lovest in each month only a day, and exceed not that upon him;

For the beholding of the new moon is but one day in the month, and afterward eyes look not on it.

Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Then I took leave of him with a heart bleeding of its wound, and wished that my night had been tardy of its morn.