"Why were you so disturbed? What did the writing say? And why did you show
so much joy in reading it?"
The imam El-Chafei answered: "When our host took us to his house I noticed
that his face lacked the characteristic signs of honesty. But as he treated us so
well I began to think perhaps I was mistaken in judging him. But when I read the
writing he handed me I saw it was as follows: 'While the imam has been here I
have spent on him ten dinars. He ought therefore to pay me back twenty.' So
then I knew that I had made no error in reading his character, and was pleased at
my skill."
The story is told that one day as the prophet Solomon was seated on his royal
throne, surrounded by men, spirits, and birds, two women came before him, each
claiming possession of a child. These two women kept saying, "It is my child,"
but neither could give proof. All their arguments amounting to nothing, the
prophet Solomon commanded that the child should be cut in two, and that each
woman should take half. When the executioner advanced, drawing his sword,
one of the women bursting into sobs cried out in anguish: "O Prophet Solomon,
don't kill the child. Give it to this woman, it is all I ask!"
As the murder of the child never drew a tear nor a movement of anxiety from the
other woman, Solomon commanded them to give it to the woman who had wept,
because her tears proved her to be the true mother, and that the child belonged to
her, and not to the other woman. Thus did King Solomon show his wisdom in
judging character.
O you who are magnificent! listen, I pray you, and hear to what degree of
sublimity generosity is lifted. In the Kitab Adab-is-Selathin it is said that two
qualities were given by God in all their perfection to two men—justice to Sultan
Nouchirvau, King of Persia, and generosity to a subject of an Arab sultan named
Hatim-Thai. The author of that work says that in the time of Hatim-Thai there
were three kings celebrated throughout the whole world, and rivals in showing
the perfection of generosity—the King of Roum, the King of Syria, and the King
of Yemen. But as none of them was as famous as Hatim-Thai, they became
jealous of him and united in hostility toward him. They said: "We are the kings
of vast countries, and shall we suffer a simple subject of an Arab sultan to be
counted as more generous than we are?" And each of these kings thought to try
Hatim-Thai and destroy him.