efore him.

"After this, they came upon us all together, and we contended with him
in a wide tract for a period of two days; and calamity befell us on the
third day, and the decree of God was executed among us. The first who
charged upon Solomon were I and my troops; and I said to my companions:
'Keep in your places in the battle-field while I go forth to them and
challenge Ed-Dimiryat.' And, lo, he came forth, like a great mountain,
his fires flaming, and his smoke ascending; and he approached, and
smote me with a flaming fire; and his arrow prevailed over my fire. He
cried out at me with a prodigious cry, so that I imagined the heaven had
fallen, and the mountains shook at his voice. Then he commanded his
companions, and they charged upon us all together: we also charged upon
them: the fires rose and the smoke ascended, the hearts of the
combatants were almost cleft asunder, and the battle raged. The birds
fought in the air; and the wild beasts in the dust; and I contended with
Ed-Dimiryat until he wearied me and I wearied him; after which my
companions and troops were enervated, and my tribes were routed. I flew
from before Ed-Dimiryat; but he followed me a journey of three months,
until he overtook me. I had fallen down through fatigue, and he rushed
upon me, and made me a prisoner. So I said to him: 'By Him who hath
exalted thee and abased me, pity me, and take me before Solomon.' But
when I came before Solomon, he met me in a most evil manner: he caused
this pillar to be brought, and hollowed it, and put me in it, and sealed
me with his signet; after which, he chained me, and Ed-Dimiryat conveyed
me to this place, where he set me down as thou seest me; and this pillar
is my prison until the day of resurrection."

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!" And the
Sheikh 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 sheikh said: "Are there in this place any of
the efreets confined in bottles of brass from the time of Solomon?" He
answered: "Yes, in the Sea of El-Karkar, where are a people of the
descendants of Noah, whose country the deluge reached not, and they are
separated there from the rest of the sons of Adam." "And where," said
the sheikh, "is the way to the City of Brass, and the place wherein are
the bot