At which point every baker will be required to sell bread at one sequin per ten okiehs.’

‘The other day,’ said the Sabean to Hakim, ‘I immediately knew you were a man of justice when I saw how your anger was aroused by the forbidden drinks. Yet this ring also gives me certain rights I shall exercise from time to time.’

‘My brother, you have spoken the truth,’ replied the caliph as he embraced him. ‘I am now done for the evening; let us go and indulge in some hashish at the okel of the Sabeans.’

III

The Lady of the Realm

Upon entering the establishment, Yousouf took the proprietor of the okel aside and asked him to excuse his friend for his conduct several days earlier. ‘Everyone,’ he said, ‘has his particular delusion when intoxicated; his delusion is that he is God!’ This explanation was relayed to the regular guests, and they seemed to be satisfied by it.

The two friends sat down at the same table as the previous time. The black boy brought them the little box containing the intoxicating paste and they each took a dose, which soon produced its effect. But instead of giving himself over to hallucinatory fantasies or rambling conversations, the caliph got up from his seat as if under the iron command of some fixation. There was an air of unbending resolve to his finely sculpted features and in a tone of voice whose authority brooked no contradiction, he said to Yousouf:

‘Brother, get into the cangia and take me to the place where you set me ashore on the isle of Roddah, near the garden terraces.’

Upon hearing this unexpected command, Yousouf tried unsuccessfully to formulate several objections, for it seemed to him quite strange to want to leave the okel at the very moment when the paradisiacal visions of hashish were reaching their height and calling for a period of sweet repose on the divans. But the caliph’s eyes flashed with such intense determination that the young man quietly went to fetch his cangia. Hakim sat down in the prow of the boat while Yousouf bent over the oars. During the short crossing the caliph showed every sign of violent exaltation; when they reached the isle, he leapt off the boat before it had even touched shore and dismissed his friend with a regal gesture. Yousouf returned to the okel and the prince set off towards the palace.

He entered through a postern gate with a secret latch and, having made his way down several dark corridors, soon found himself in his chambers, much to the surprise of his servants, who were accustomed to see him returning only at the crack of dawn. His face was lit up by a light so unearthly, his gait was so unsteady and so rigid, his gestures were so bizarre that the eunuchs were filled with vague apprehension. They suspected that something extraordinary was about to take place in the palace and, flattening themselves against the walls with their heads down and arms crossed, they awaited the event with deferential dread. They knew that when Hakim took justice into his own hands, he was swift, harsh and peremptory. Everyone was quaking, for no one felt himself to be pure.

Hakim, however, did not send a single head rolling. His mind was entirely occupied by something far graver than these petty disciplinary matters. Directing himself towards the rooms of his sister, the princess Setalmulc – an act that went against all Muslim customs – he lifted the curtain over the door and strode into the outer chamber, causing panic among the princess’s eunuchs and ladies-in-waiting, who immediately veiled their faces.

Setalmulc (the name means ‘lady of the realm’ – sitt’al mulk) was sitting in a secluded chamber on a pile of cushions that decorated an alcove cut into a thick wall. The interior of this room was dazzling in its magnificence. A series of small domes perforated the vaulted ceiling, giving it the appearance of a honeycomb or a stalactite grotto graced by an intricate and ingenious array of ornaments, whose bright hues were a blend of red, green, blue and gold. Exquisite shoulder-high panels of glass mosaic work ran along the walls; arcades hollowed out in the form of hearts rested on turban-shaped capitals, which in turn were supported by small marble columns. All along the cornices, the door jambs and the window frames there were bands of Karmathian script,5 whose elegant letters were entwined with flowers, leaves and swirling arabesques. In the middle of the room, an alabaster fountain cast a crystal jet of water towards the vaulted ceiling and gathered the fine silver plash in its sculpted basin.

Hearing the commotion caused by the arrival of Hakim, Setalmulc got up and took a few anxious steps to the door. As she advanced, she appeared in all her majesty, for the caliph’s sister was the most beautiful princess in the world. The velvety black arcs of her eyebrows rose in perfect symmetry above a pair of eyes so bright that one had to avert one’s gaze as if looking at the sun; the fine and faintly aquiline curve of her nose bespoke her royal race; against the pale gold of her face, heightened by two smudges of rouge on her cheeks, the stunning purple of her mouth burst forth like a pomegranate filled with pearls.

The sumptuousness of Setalmulc’s attire was extraordinary. Her veil of sequinned gauze was fastened to a metal horn set with diamonds; her velvet dress, half green, half incarnadine, was almost invisible beneath the intricate leafy patterns of its embroidery. The intermingled sparkle of gold and silver gathered the light into radiant confluences at her sleeves, her elbows and her bodice. Her belt, made of plates of chiselled gold studded with huge rubies, was so heavy that it rode very low on her supple waist and came to rest on the bountiful contour of her hips. In these raiments Setalmulc resembled some queen of a vanished empire, a lineal descendant of the gods.

Tearing the curtain of the door violently aside, Hakim stood there on the threshold. At the sight of her brother, Setalmulc could not stifle a cry of surprise, although she was less astonished by his unexpected presence than by his strange appearance. Indeed, Hakim no longer seemed to be of this earth; the pallor of his face reflected the light of another world.