his home."
A man had committed a serious offence against King Haroun-er-Raschid.
Condemned to death, he succeeded in escaping. But he had a brother. The King
summoned the latter and said to him: "Find your brother so that I may kill him.
If you do not find him I will kill you in his place." This man not finding his
brother, the King Haroun-er-Raschid ordered one of his servants to bring him to
be killed. But this servant said: "O prince of believers! if the one who received
the command to put this man to death brings him for that purpose and at the
same time a messenger comes from your Majesty with an order not to kill him,
ought he not to release him?"
King Haroun-er-Raschid answered, "He certainly ought to release him, on
account of my orders."
"O prince of believers," answered the servant, "the Koran says, 'He who has a
burden shall not bear another's.'"
Then the King said: "Set the man free, for this must cover his case, and means
that the innocent should not perish for the guilty."
They tell that, a pundit appearing one day before the Sultan Ismail Samani, King
of the country of Khorassan, the Sultan received him with great distinction, and
at his departure saluted him most respectfully and escorted him to the door,
taking seven steps behind him.
The next night he dreamed that the glorious prophet (with whom be peace!)
spoke thus to him: "O Ismail, because you honored one of my pundits, I will
pray God that after you seven of your children and grandchildren shall become
great and glorious kings." They say that for many years the kingdom of
Khorassan flourished under the paternal government of the successors of this
Sultan.
The Sultan Abdallah Tlahir, as soon as he had taken possession of the throne of
Khorassan, received the homage of a large number of his subjects. At the end of
several days he asked, "Is there anyone of distinction in the country who has not
come to present himself before me?" They told him, "There are two persons that
have not come, one named Ahmed Arab, and the other named Mahomet Islam.
But these two men never present themselves before kings and ministers."