It is related that there was a merchant of the merchants who had much wealth and conducted business in various cities. One day he mounted his horse and set forth to collect monies owed to him in certain towns. The heat oppressed him greatly, so he sat beneath a tree and, reaching into his saddle bags, took out some broken bread and dry dates and began to break his fast. When he had finished eating the dates, he threw the stones away forcefully, and behold! an Ifrit appeared—huge of stature and brandishing a drawn sword. He approached the merchant and said, "Stand up, that I may slay you, even as you slew my son!"

The merchant asked, "How have I slain your son?" The Ifrit answered, "When you ate the dates and threw away the stones, they struck my son full in the breast as he was walking by, so that he died immediately." The merchant said, "Truly, from Allah we proceeded and unto Allah are we returning. There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! If I slew your son, I did so by chance medley. I pray you now pardon me." The Jinni replied, "There is no help for it—I must slay you." Then he seized the merchant and dragged him along, and casting him to the earth, raised the sword to strike him. At this, the merchant wept and said, "I commit my case to Allah," and began repeating these couplets:—

Time contains a twain of days, one of blessing and one of bane, And Life holds a twain of halves, one of pleasure and one of pain. Do you not see how when the hurricane blows, sweeping stark and striking strong, Only the forest giant feels the suffering of the strain? How many trees does earth nourish, both the dry and the green, Yet none but those which bear fruits complain of being cast with stone. Do you not see how corpses rise and float on the surface of the tide, While pearls of price lie hidden in the deepest of the main? In Heaven are unnumbered the many of the stars, Yet not a single star but Sun and Moon by eclipse is overcome. Well did you judge the days that saw your faring sound and well, And counted not the pangs and pain whereof Fate is ever fain. The nights have kept you safe and the safety brought you pride, But bliss and blessings of the night are generators of bane!

When the merchant finished reciting his verses, the Jinni said to him, "Cut your words short! By God, I must slay you." But the merchant spoke to him thus: "Know, O Ifrit, that I have debts owed to me and much wealth and children and a wife and many pledges in hand. Permit me to go home and discharge to every claimant what I owe him, and I will return to you at the head of the new year. Let Allah be my testimony and surety that I will return to you, and then you may do with me as you will. Allah is witness to what I say." The Jinni took a solemn oath from him and let him go. So the merchant returned to his own city and settled all his business affairs, paying back all that was owed to him. After informing his wife and children of what had befallen him, he appointed a guardian for them and dwelt with his family for a full year. Then he rose, performed the ritual ablution to purify himself before death, took his shroud under his arm, and bade farewell to his people, his neighbours, and all his kith and kin, going forth as though walking to his doom. They began weeping and wailing and beating their breasts over him, but he travelled until he arrived at the same garden, and the day of his arrival was the head of the New Year.

As he sat weeping over what had befallen him, behold, a Shaykh—a very ancient man—drew near, leading a chained gazelle. He saluted the merchant and, wishing him long life, said, "What is the cause of your sitting alone in this place, which is a resort of evil spirits?" The merchant related to him all that had come to pass with the Ifrit. The old man, the owner of the gazelle, marvelled and said, "By God, O brother, your faith is nothing but exceeding faith, and your story is most strange. Were it engraved upon the eye corners, it would be a warning to whoever might be warned." Then he seated himself near the merchant and said, "By God, O my brother, I will not leave you until I see what may come to pass between you and this Ifrit."

Presently, as he sat there talking with the merchant, the merchant began to feel fear and terror, exceeding grief and sorrow beyond relief, and ever-growing care and extreme despair. The owner of the gazelle remained close by his side. Then behold, a second Shaykh approached them, and with him were two dogs of greyhound breed, both black. This second old man saluted them with the salam and also asked about their tidings, saying, "What causes you to sit in this place, a dwelling of the Jann?" So they told him the tale from beginning to end.

Their stay there had not lasted long before there came up a third Shaykh, and with him a she-mule of bright bay coat. He saluted them and asked why they were seated in that place. So they told him the story from beginning to end. And indeed, as it is said, a twice-told tale is of no avail! There he sat down with them, and lo, a dust cloud advanced and a mighty sand devil appeared in the middle of the waste. Presently, the cloud opened and behold, within it was that Jinni, holding a drawn sword in his hand, his eyes shooting forth sparks of rage. He came up to them and, dragging away the merchant from among them, cried to him, "Arise, that I may slay you as you slew my son, the very life of my liver!" The merchant wailed and wept, and the three old men began sighing and crying and weeping and wailing with their companion.

Presently, the first old man—the owner of the gazelle—came out from among them and kissed the hand of the Ifrit, saying, "O Jinni, Crown of the Kings of the Jann! If I were to tell you the story of me and this gazelle, and you should consider it wondrous, would you give me a third part of this merchant's blood?" Then the Jinni said, "Even so, O Shaykh! If you tell me this tale and I find it to be remarkable, then I will give you a third of his blood." Thereupon the old man began to tell