" And the patient would say, "Verily, this physician
says sooth." So he continued to do the occasions of the folk and
they to flock to him, till his fame spread throughout the city
and into the houses of the great. One day, as he sat in his
shop, there came up an old woman riding on an ass with housings
of brocade, embroidered with jewels, and drawing bridle before
his shop, beckoned to him, saying, "Take my hand." So he took
her hand, and she alighted and said to him, "Art thou the Persian
physician from Irak?" "Yes," answered he, and she said, "Know
that I have a sick daughter." Then she brought out to him
a phial and he looked at it and said to her, "Tell me thy
daughter's name, that I may calculate her horoscope and learn the
hour in which it will befit her to take medicine." "O brother of
the Persians," answered she, "her name is Num." When he heard
this, he fell to calculating and writing on his hand and
presently said to her, "O my lady, I cannot prescribe for the
girl, till I know what countrywoman she is, because of the
difference of climate: so tell me where she was brought up and
what is her age." "She is fourteen years old," replied the old
woman, "and was brought up in Cufa of Irak." "And how long,"
asked he, "has she sojourned in this country?" "But a few
months," answered she.
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