Some fell to
reciting the Koran, whilst others chanted the litanies of the
praise of God, and thus they did till the morning, when Zoulmekan
went up to the tomb of his brother Sherkan and shedding copious
tears, repeated the following verses:
They bore him forth, whilst all who went behind him wept and
cried Such cries as Moses gave, when God broke down the
mountain side,
Till to a tomb they came, whose grave seemed dug in all men's
hearts By whom the unity of God is held and glorified.
I had not thought, or ere they bore thee forth upon the bier, To
see my joy upon the hands of men uplifted ride;
Nor, till they laid thee in the grave, could I have ever deemed
That stars could leave their place in heaven and in the dark
earth hide.
Is the indweller of the tomb the hostage of a pit, In which, for
that his face is there, splendour and light abide?
Lo, praise has ta'en upon itself to bring him back to life; Now
that his body's hid, his fame's shown forth and magnified.
When he had made an end of reciting these verses, he wept and all
the troops wept with him; then he threw himself on the tomb, wild
with grief, and the Vizier repeated the words of the poet:
That which fleets past thou hast left and won what endureth for
aye, And even as thou are the folk, that were and have
passed away;
And yet it was not of thy will that thou quittedst this house of
the world; For here hadst thou joy and delight of all that
befell in thy day.
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