' 'Have no care and
think nought but good,' said one of the dervishes; 'for I am head
of the convent and have forty dervishes under my hand. I will
gather thee from them the ten thousand dinars and thou shalt pay
thy father-in-law the dowry. But now bid thy wife make us music,
that we may be heartened and solaced, for to some music is food,
to others medicine and to others refreshment.'[FN#103] Now
these four dervishes were none other than the Khalif Haroun er
Reshid and his Vizier Jaafer the Barmecide and Abou Nuwas ben
Hani[FN#104] and Mesrour the headsman; and the reason of their
coming thither was that the Khalif, being heavy at heart, had
called his Vizier and signified to him his wish to go forth and
walk about the city, to divert himself. So they all four donned
dervish habits and went out and walked about, till they came to
Zubeideh's house and hearing music, were minded to know the
cause. They spent the night in mirth and harmony and discourse,
till the morning, when the Khalif laid a hundred dinars under the
prayer-carpet and taking leave of Alaeddin, went his way, he and
his companions. Presently, Zubeideh lifted the carpet and finding
the hundred dinars, gave them to her husband, saying, 'Take these
hundred dinars that I have found under the prayer-carpet; the
dervishes must have laid them there, without our knowledge.
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