Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the astronomer said, “Now tell me what four contraries are based upon other four contraries?” Replied she, “The four qualities of Caloric and Frigoric, Humidity and Siccity; for of heat Allah created fire, whose nature is hot-dry; of dryness, earth, which is cold-dry; of cold, water, which is cold-wet; of moisture, air, which is hot-wet. Moreover, He created twelve Signs of the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces; and appointed them of the four humours; three fiery, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius; three earthy, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn; three airy, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius; and three watery, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.” Hereupon the astronomer rose, and saying, “Bear witness against me that she is more learned than I,” away he went beaten. Then quoth the Caliph, “Where is the philosopher[429]?”; at which one rose hastily and came forward and said to Tawaddud, “What is Time and what be its limits, and its days, and what things bringeth it?” Replied she, “Time is a term applied to the hours of the night and day, which are but the measures of the courses of the sun and moon in their several heavens, even as Allah Almighty telleth us when he saith, ‘A sign to them also is the Night, from which we strip off the day, and lo! they are plunged in darkness, and the Sun runneth to her place of rest; this is the ordinance of the Sublime, the All-knowing.’”[430] (¿) “How cometh unbelief to the son of Adam?”—It is reported of the Apostle (whom Allah bless and preserve!) that he said, ‘Unbelief in a man runneth as the blood runneth in his veins, when he revileth the world and Time and night and the Hour.’ And again, ‘Let none of you revile Time, for Time is God;’ neither revile the world, for she saith, May Allah not aid him who revileth me! neither revile the hour, for, ‘The Hour is surely coming, there is no doubt thereof’;[431] neither revile the earth, for it is a portent, according to the saying of the Most High, ‘Out of the ground have we created you, and into the same will we cause you to return, and we will bring you forth yet thence another time.’[432] (¿) “What are the five that ate and drank, yet came not out of loins nor womb?”—Adam and Simeon[433] and Salih’s she-camel[434] and Ishmael’s ram and the bird that Abu Bakr the Truth-teller saw in the cave.[435] (¿) “Tell me of five that are in Paradise and are neither humans, Jinns nor angels?”—Jacob’s wolf and the Seven Sleepers’ dog and Esdras’s ass and Salih’s camel and Duldul the mule of the Prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace!). (¿) “What man prayed a prayer neither on earth nor in heaven?”—Solomon, when he prayed on his carpet, borne by the wind. (¿) “Ree me this riddle:—A man once looked at a handmaid during dawn-prayer, and she was unlawful to him; but, at noonday she became lawful to him: by mid-afternoon, she was again unlawful, but at sundown, she was lawful to him: at supper time she was a third time unlawful, but by daybreak, she became once more lawful to him.”—This was a man who looked at another’s slave-girl in the morning, and she was then unlawful to him; but at midday he bought her, and she became lawful to him: at mid-afternoon he freed her, and she became unlawful to him; but at sundown he married her and she was again lawful to him. At nightfall he divorced her and she was then a third time unlawful to him; but, next morning at daybreak, he took her back, and she became once more lawful to him. (¿) “Tell me what tomb went about with him that lay buried therein?”—Jonah’s whale, when it had swallowed him. (¿) “What spot of lowland is it, upon which the sun shone once, but will never again shine till Judgment-Day?”—The bottom of the Red Sea, when Moses smote it with his staff, and the sea clave asunder in twelve places, according to the number of the tribes;[436] then the sun shone on the bottom and will do so nevermore until Judgment-Day.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.