hrough metal
and stone. He could make mountains and rivers change place, shift
about cities and castles, rise into emptiness without falling, strike
against solid matter without finding it an obstruction; and he knew a
thousand transformations in all their inexhaustible variety. And he
could not only change the shape of things but he could change men's
thoughts. The King honored him like a god, and served him as he would
a master. He resigned his own apartments that the magician might be
lodged in them, had beasts of sacrifice brought to offer him, and
selected sweet singers to give him pleasure. But the rooms in the
King's palace were too humble--the magician could not dwell in them;
and the King's singers were not musical enough to be allowed to be
near him. So King Mu had a new palace built for him. The work of
bricklayers and carpenters, of painters and stainers left nothing to
be desired with regard to skill. The King's treasury was empty when
the tower had reached its full height. It was a thousand fathoms high,
and rose above the top of the mountain before the capital. The King
selected maidens, the loveliest and most dainty, gave them fragrant
essences, had their eyebrows curved in lines of beauty, and adorned
their hair and ears with jewels. He garbed them in fine cloth, and
with white silks fluttering about them, and had their faces painted
white and their eyebrows stained black. He had them put on armlets of
precious stones and mix sweet-smelling herbs. They filled the palace
and sang the songs of the ancient kings in order to please the
magician. Every month the most costly garments were brought him, and
every morning the most delicate food. The magician allowed them to do
so, and since he had no choice, made the best of it.

Not long afterward the magician invited the King to go traveling with
him. The King grasped the magician's sleeve, and thus they flew up
through the air to the middle of the skies. When they stopped they
found they had reached the palace of the magician. It was built of
gold and silver, and adorned with pearls and precious stones. It
towered high over the clouds and rain; and none could say whereon it
rested. To the eye it had the appearance of heaped-up clouds. All that
it offered the senses was different from the things of the world of
men. It seemed to the King as though he were bodily present in the
midst of the purple depths of the city of the air, of the divine
harmony of the sph