tles? 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 in the distance a great black object, with two fires
corresponding with each other in position; whereupon the Emeer Moosa
said to the sheikh: "What is this great black object, and 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, 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. They
stopped before it, and endeavoured to discover one of its gates; but
they could not; and the Emeer Moosa said to the Sheikh Abd-Es-Samad: "O
sheikh, I see not to this city any gate." The sheikh replied: "O Emeer,
thus do I find it described in the Book of Hidden Treasures; that it
hath five and twenty gates, and that none of its gates may be opened but
from within the city." "And how," said the emeer, "can we contrive to
enter it, and divert ourselves with a view of its wonders?"

Then the Emeer Moosa ordered one of his young men to mount a camel, and
ride round the city, in the hope that he might discover a trace of a
gate. So one of his young men mounted, and proceeded around it for two
days with their nights, prosecuting his journey with diligence, and not
resting; and when the third day arrived, he came in sight of his
companions, and he was astounded at that which he beheld of the extent
of the city, and its height. Then he said: "O Emeer, the easiest place
in it is this place at which ye have alighted." And thereupon the Emeer
Moosa took Talib and the Sheikh Abd-Es-Samad, and they ascended a
mountain opposite the city, and overlooking it; and when they had
ascended that mountain, they saw a city than which eyes had not beheld
any greater. Its pavilions were lofty, and its domes were shining; its
rivers were running, its trees were fruitful, and its gardens bore ripe
produce. It was a city with impenetrable gates, empty, still, without a
voice but the owl hooting