" Quoth the Khalif,
"Tell us of its history," and Kaab said, "Aad the Great had two
sons, Shedid and Sheddad. When their father died, they ruled in
his stead, and there was no king of the kings of the earth but
was subject to them. After awhile Shedid died and his brother
Sheddad reigned over the earth alone. Now he was fond of reading
in old books, and happening upon the description of the world to
come and of Paradise, with its pavilions and galleries and trees
and fruits and so forth, his soul moved him to build the like
thereof in this world, after the fashion aforesaid.[FN#140] Now
under his hand were a hundred thousand kings, each ruling over a
hundred thousand captains, commanding each a hundred thousand
warriors; so he called these all before him and said to them, 'I
find in old books and histories a description of Paradise, as it
is to be in the next world, and I desire to build its like in
this world. Go ye forth therefore to the goodliest and most
spacious tract in the world and build me there a city of gold and
silver, whose gravel shall be rubies and chrysolites and pearls
and the columns of its vaults beryl. Fill it with palaces,
whereon ye shall set galleries and balconies, and plant its lanes
and thoroughfares with all manner of trees bearing ripe fruits
and make rivers to run through it in channels of gold and
silver.
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