So I journeyed to
the land of the Greeks and visited it in every part during a
whole year, leaving no place but I worshipped God therein. When I
came to the place (where the Syrians found me) I ascended the
mountain and saw there a hermitage, inhabited by a monk called
Metrouhena. When he saw me, he came out to me and kissed my hands
and feet, saying, 'Verily, I have seen thee, since thou camest
into the land of the Greeks, and thou hast filled me with longing
for the land of Islam.' Then he took my hand and carrying me into
the hermitage, brought me to a dark place, where he took me
unawares and locking the door on me, left me there forty days,
without meat or drink; for it was his intent to kill me by
starvation. One day it chanced that a knight called Decianus came
to the hermitage, accompanied by ten squires and his daughter
Temathil, a girl of incomparable beauty. The monk told them of
me, and Decianus said, 'Bring him out, for surely there is not a
bird's meal of flesh left on him.' So they opened the door of the
dungeon and found me standing erect in the niche, praying and
reciting the Koran and glorifying God and humbling myself to Him.
When they saw this, the monk exclaimed, 'This man is indeed a
sorcerer of the sorcerers!' Then they all came in on me, and
Decianus and his company beat me grievously, till I desired death
and reproached myself, saying, 'This is the reward of him who
glorifies himself and takes credit for that which God hath
bestowed upon him, beyond his own competence! For, indeed, my
soul, pride and arrogance have crept into thee.
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