an 'Efreet
of the Jinn, and my name is Dahish the son of El-Amash, and I am
restrained here by the majesty, confined by the power, [of God,]
tormented as long as God (to whom be ascribed might and glory!) willeth.
Then the Emeer Moosa said, O sheykh 'Abd-Es-Samad, ask him what is the
cause of his confinement in this pillar. He therefore asked respecting
that, and the 'Efreet answered him, Verily my story is wonderful, and
it is this:

[The Evil Spirit narrates to them his history, being part of
the famous war between Solomon and the Jinn.]

The party therefore wondered at him, and at the horrible nature of his
form; and the Emeer Moosa said, There is no deity but God! Suleyman was
endowed with a mighty dominion!--And the sheykh 'Abd-Es-Samad said to
the 'Efreet, O thou, I ask thee concerning a thing of which do thou
inform us. The 'Efreet replied, Ask concerning what thou wilt. And the
sheykh said, Are there in this place any of the 'Efreets confined in
bottles of brass from the time of Suleyman, on whom be peace? He
answered, Yes, in the Sea of El-Karkar, where are a people of the
descendants of Nooh (on whom be peace!), whose country the deluge
reached not, and they are separated there from [the rest of] the sons of
Adam.--And where, said the sheykh, is the way to the City of Brass, and
the place wherein are the bottles? What distance is there between us and
it? The 'Efreet answered, It is near. So the party left him and
proceeded; and there appeared to them a great black object, with two
[seeming] fires corresponding with each other in position, in the
distance, in that black object; whereupon the Emeer Moosa said to the
sheykh, What is this great black object, and what are these two
corresponding fires? The guide answered him, Be rejoiced, O Emeer; for
this is the City of Brass, and this is the appearance of it that I find
described in the Book of Hidden Treasures; that its wall is of black
stones, and it hath two towers of brass of El-Andalus, which the
beholder seeth resembling two corresponding fires; and thence it is
named the City of Brass. They ceased not to proceed until they arrived
at it; and lo, it was lofty, strongly fortified, rising high into the
air, impenetrable: the height of its walls was eighty cubits, and it had
five and twenty gates, none of which would open but by means of some
artifice; and there was not one gate to it that had not, within the
city, one like it: such was the beauty