.[1] But since
God hath given to us the royal authority and power, which is in our
hands by His goodness only, let us obey His holy will, which is no other
than that we do good to all men,[2] and in especial to those placed
under our protection. See thou therefore, O my son, that thou distribute
equal justice to rich and poor, nor permit that any wrong or oppression
be committed in thy kingdom, for by injustice is the road to perdition.
Be clement, and do right to all who depend upon thee, for all are the
creatures of God."[3]

The son was not inferior to the father, and capable, as the following
story shews, of the most Christian generosity.[4] One of the faquirs who
had rebelled against Hakem being captured and brought into the presence
of the king, did not shrink in his bigotry and hate from telling the
Sultan that in hating him he was obeying God. Hakem answered: "He who
bid thee, as thou sayest, hate me, bids me pardon thee. Go, and live in
God's protection."[5]

[1] Daniel, iv. 25, and Koran, ii. v. 249--"God giveth His
kingdom unto whom He pleaseth;" and Koran, iii. v. 24.

[2] Galatians vi. 20--"Let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them that are of the household of faith."

[3] Conde, i. 240.

[4] It is fair to state that Hakem I. was not always so
generous.

[5] Lane-Poole, "Story of the Moors," p. 77.

Prone as the Mohammedans were to superstition, and many as are the
miracles and wonders, which are described in their histories, it must be
acknowledged that their capacity for imagining and believing in
miracles never equalled that of Christian priests in the Middle Ages.[1]

We hear indeed of a vision of Mohammed appearing to Tarik, the invader
of Spain;[2] of a miraculous spring gushing forth at the prayer of Akbar
ibn Nafir;[3] of the marvellous cap of Omar;[4] of the wonders that
distinguished the corpse of the murdered Hosein; of the vision shewing
the tomb of Abu Ayub;[5] but nothing that will bear a comparison with
the invention of St James' body at Ira Flavia (Padron), nor the clumsy
and unblushing forgery of relics at Granada in the year of the
Armada.[6] Yet the following story of Baki ibn Mokhlid, from Al
Kusheyri,[7] reminds us forcibly of similar monkish extravagancies. A
woman came to Baki, and said that, her son being a prisoner in the hands
of the Franks, she intended to sell her house and go in search of him;
but before doing so she asked his ad