entered the market of the city, and beheld that the shops
were open, and the scales hung up, and the utensils of brass ranged in
order, and the stores were full of all kinds of goods. And they saw the
merchants dead in their shops: their skins were dried, and they had
become examples to him who would be admonished. And they left this
place, and passed on to the silk-market, in which were silks and
brocades interwoven with red gold and white silver upon various colours,
and the owners were dead, lying upon skins, and appearing almost as
though they would speak. Leaving these, they went on to the market of
jewels and pearls and jacinths; and they left it, and passed on to the
market of the money-changers, whom they found dead, with varieties of
silks beneath them, and their shops were filled with gold and silver.
These they left, and they proceeded to the markets of the perfumers;
and, lo, their shops were filled with varieties of perfumes, and bags of
musk, and ambergris, and aloes-wood, and camphor; and the owners were
all dead, not having with them any food. And when they went forth from
the market of the perfumers, they found near unto it a palace,
decorated, and strongly constructed; and they entered it, and found
banners unfurled, and drawn swords, and strung bows and shields hung up
by chains of gold and silver, and helmets gilded with red gold. And in
the passages of that palace were benches of ivory, ornamented with
plates of brilliant gold, and with silk, on which were men whose skins
had dried upon the bones; the ignorant would imagine them to be
sleeping; but, from the want of food, they had died, and tasted
mortality.

And the Emeer Moosa went on into the interior of the palace. There he
beheld a great hall, and four large and lofty chambers, each one
fronting another, wide, decorated with gold and silver and with various
colours. In the midst of the hall was a great fountain of alabaster,
over which was a canopy of brocade; and in those chambers were fountains
lined with marble; and channels of water flowed along the floors of
those chambers, the four streams meeting in a great tank lined with
marbles of various colours. The Emeer Moosa then said to the Sheikh
Abd-Es-Samad: "Enter these chambers with us." So they entered the first
chamber; and they found it filled with gold and with white silver, and
pearls and jewels, and jacinths and precious minerals. They found in it
also chests full of red and yellow a