" So at nightfall Sherkan and Zoulmekan
came to her with food and said, "Eat, O pious man." But she said,
"This is no time for eating; it is the hour for doing my service
to the Requiting King." Then she took up her station in the
prayer-niche and stood praying till the night was spent; and she
ceased not to do thus for three days and nights, sitting not but
at the time of salutation.[FN#108] When Zoulmekan saw this her
behaviour, belief in her took firm hold upon his heart and he
said to Sherkan, "Cause a tent of perfumed leather to be pitched
for this holy man and appoint a servant to wait upon him." On the
fourth day, she called for food; so they brought her all kinds of
meats that could allure the sense or delight the eye; but of all
this she ate but one cake of bread with salt. Then she turned
again to her fast, and when the night came, she rose anew to
pray: and Sherkan said to Zoulmekan, "Verily, this man carries
renunciation of the world to the utmost extreme, and were it not
for this holy war, I would join myself to him and worship God in
his service, till I came before His presence. And now I would
fain enter his tent and talk with him awhile." "And I also," said
Zoulmekan. "To-morrow we sally forth against Constantinople, and
we shall find no time like the present." "And I also," said the
Vizier Dendan, "desire to see this holy man; haply he will pray
for me that I may find my death in this holy war and come to the
presence of my Lord, for I am weary of the world.
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