However, the young man who had just escaped from death sought out his deliverer to thank her. And when told that she had left the town, he inquired what route she had taken, and followed her. He came up with her on the edge of a fountain, where she had stopped to rest; he saluted her very respectfully, and offered to be her slave in order to show his gratitude.

‘No,’ she said, ‘I do not wish you to buy so dearly the service I have done you; you are not so indebted to me as you imagine. It is not out of love for you that I saved you from death; it is solely for the love of the Most High.’

Whilst she was speaking thus the young man had his eyes upon her, and, struck by her great beauty, he became enamoured of her. He declared his love on the spot, and, persuaded that he would not find a better occasion, he threw himself at the feet of Repsima, and conjured her in the most passionate terms to respond to the ardour she inspired in him; but the chaste wife of Temim, instead of seeing with pleasure a lover at her feet, was enraged against him, and treated him with no more favour than the negro: ‘O wretch,’ she said, ‘you know that without me you would not be alive at this moment. Your life would have been taken, and yet you dare attack my fidelity; you are even insolent enough to speak to me of your love.’

‘Beautiful lady,’ replied the young man, ‘I did not think to insult you when I expressed to you all the sentiments which gratitude, and the sight of you aroused in my heart. Is it such a great insult to you to tell you that you have charmed me?’

‘Silence, wretch,’ interrupted Repsima, ‘do not think you can prevail upon me to listen to you; it is in vain that you hide your sinister design under respectful words, I can easily detect it beneath your flattering speech. Go, fly from me, and do not force me to regret the service I have done you.’

The manner in which she spoke made the young man see that he had nothing to hope for. He rose without saying anything, and went towards the sea-shore.

He saw a vessel stop, the crew of which were landing; they were Bassora merchants who were going to Serendib; he approached them and asked for the captain.

‘I have,’ he said, ‘a perfectly beautiful slave whom I wish to sell; she does not love me; I have resolved to get rid of her; I left her at the edge of a fountain near here, buy her, I will sell her to you very cheap. I will give her to you for three hundred sequins.’

‘I take you at your word,’ replied the captain, ‘provided she is young, and as beautiful as you say.’

Thereupon the young man led the captain towards the fountain, where Repsima after her ablution was engaged in prayer. The captain had no sooner seen her than he counted out three hundred sequins to the young man, who took his way back to the town.

The captain who had just bought Repsima approached her, and said, ‘O ravishing beauty, I am enchanted at what I have just done. I have seen many slaves, I have bought more than a thousand in my life-time, but I must admit that you surpass them all. Your eyes are more beautiful than the sun, and your figure is above compare.’

If this speech surprised Repsima, she was much more astonished when the captain put out his hand to her, saying:

‘Come, my princess, I am going to take you on board, and put you in a room on the poop. We shall be setting sail in a minute, we will make the voyage to Serendib together, and on our return to Bassora you shall be the mistress of my wealth and of my house, for I do not propose to sell you. If I have bought you from this young man, whom you do not love, it is in order to make you the happiest person in the world. I shall show you all possible affection and consideration.’

At these words, to which Repsima listened very impatiently, she interrupted the captain:

‘What are you saying?’ she cried, ‘I have never been a slave, I am free, and no one has the right to sell me.’ Thus saying, she abruptly repulsed the captain’s hand.

He was naturally abrupt and violent, he was shocked at the way in which she received the pleasant remarks he thought he was making to her. He suddenly changed his tone.

‘What, little creature,’ he said, ‘is it thus you speak to your master? I have bought you with my money, you are my slave, I shall take you whether you will or no.’ Saying these words, he took her in his arms, and in spite of her resistance, he carried her off as a wolf does a sheep that has wandered from the fold. It was in vain that the air resounded with her cries, he put her on board, and soon the vessel set sail.

The captain left Repsima to herself for some days, but seeing that she regarded him with no more favour however tender he was to her, he lost patience and insisted one day that she should be responsive to his love. She found herself in no way disposed to yield to the entreaties of her master, who, losing patience, was about to treat her very harshly, when a terrible storm arose. In a moment so furious a wind sprung up that the masts, rigging, and sails were carried away.

The sailors did not know what to do, and the pilot, abandoning the ship to the mercy of the wind and waves, cried:

‘O passengers, if any one of you has committed crimes, and violated the laws of the Prophet, let him ask pardon of Heaven; there is no time to lose, we are all about to perish.’ The tempest indeed increased, and the vessel, after fighting for a few moments against the waves, was at last submerged.

All the persons on board perished, excepting Repsima and the captain. They both saved them­selves on a plank, and were washed ashore each in a different spot. The wife of Temim was carried by the waves on to the shore of a thickly popu­lated island, governed by a woman.

By chance a great number of the inhabitants were on the sea shore. When they perceived Repsima in the water and saw her cast up on their island they looked upon it as a miracle. They all surrounded her and asked her a thousand questions.

To better satisfy their curiosity she related her adventures to them, and conjured them to grant her a refuge where she could live in peace. The inhabitants, charmed with her beauty, intelligence, and virtue, gave her a refuge where she passed several years in prayer.

The inhabitants of the island admired the austerity of her life exceedingly. They talked only of the stranger and the purity of her life, she even soon became their oracle. When some among them wished to make a long journey, or formed any other enterprise, before executing it they did not fail to go and consult her, and she pre­dicted their fortune. Finally, she gained the esteem of everybody; or, rather, she was looked upon as a divinity. The queen of the island conceived so much friendship for her, that, thinking she could not do better than make her queen over her people, she declared her her heiress with the approval of all the inhabitants. The queen was very advanced in years; she soon died. Repsima was somewhat reluctant to take her place, but the people forced her to it, and they had no occasion to repent of it, for she made them so happy that they afterwards blessed the shipwreck which had cast her on their shores.

As soon as she was on the throne she applied herself entirely to the government of the State. She selected vizirs as upright as they were enlightened, and she took particular care to render justice to every one. She spent in prayer every moment that her duties as queen allowed her. She fasted, and the more she saw herself honoured by men, the more she humiliated herself before the Omnipo­tent. When anyone fell sick and had recourse to her, begging her to pray Heaven to cure them, she redoubled her prayers and the Lord granted them. The inhabitants of the kingdom could not hold out against the miracles they witnessed. They renounced the worship of the sun and embraced Mahomedanism. She established the sacred laws, and had mosques built on the ruins of idolatry.

She also had hospitals built for the poor, and caravanserais for the strangers who came to the island. She spent great sums in providing these places with every necessary, and soon the sick of all nations were seen arriving on the island, seeking the relief of their ills on the strength of the queen’s reputation.

One day they came to tell Repsima that there were six strangers in a caravanserai, who asked to speak to her, that one of them was blind, another partly paralysed, and another dropsical. She ordered them to be brought to her immediately; at the same time she seated herself on a magnifi­cent throne. She had on her one hand fifty or sixty slaves richly dressed, and on the other all the great people of her court.

When the strangers arrived at the palace two lords conducted them before the queen, whose face as well as those of all her slaves was covered with a thick veil. The strangers prostrated themselves with their faces to the ground until Repsima ordered them to rise. Then she asked them what they wanted of her, and whence they came.

One who spoke for the others replied, ‘O great queen, may God make your armies to triumph, may the earth obey you, and Heaven be favourable to you. We are unfortunate sinners, and we come here to obtain through the interces­sion of your majesty the pardon of our sins by the Almighty.’