I had in my employment a woman-servant, who was born on the 28th of Ṣafar, A.H. 510*

(=July 12th, A.D. 1116), when the Moon was in conjunction with the Sun and there was no distance between them, so that both the Share of Fortune and the Share of the Unseen fell on the degree of the Ascendant. When she reached the age of fifteen years, I taught her Astrology, in which she became so skilful that she could answer difficult questions in this science, and her prognostications came very near the truth. Ladies used to come to her and question her, and the most part of what she said coincided with the pre-ordained decrees of fate.

One day an old woman came and said: “It is now four years since a son of mine went on a journey, and I have no news of him, neither of his life nor of his death. See whether, wherever he may be, he is of the living or the dead.” So the woman-astrologer arose, took the altitude, worked out the degree of the Ascendant, drew out an astrological table, and determined the positions of the stars; and the very first words she said were, “Thy son hath returned!”

The old woman was annoyed and said: “O child, I have no hopes of my son's coming: tell me this much, is he alive or dead?”

“I tell you,” said the other, “thy son hath come. Go, and, if he hath not come, return, that I may tell thee how he is.”

So the old woman went to her house, and lo! her son had arrived and was unloading his asses. She embraced him, took off her veil, and came back to the woman-astrologer, saying, “Thou didst speak truly; my son hath come, bringing presents”; and she gave her her blessing. When I came home and heard tidings of this, I enquired of her, “By what didst thou speak, and from what House didst thou deduce this prognostication?” She answered: “I had not reached so far as this. When I had finished the figure of the Ascendant, he came in and sat down on the letter of the degree of the Ascendant, wherefore it so seemed in my mind, that this young man had returned. When I said so, and the mother had gone to find out, it became so certain to me that it was as though I actually saw him unloading his asses.”

Then I perceived that it was the Share of the Unseen, and nothing else but this, which thus influenced the degree of the Ascendant.