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'There has a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant
to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling and said "Master, just now
I was in the market-place and was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She
looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend my your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.
I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me." The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it and
dug his spurs into its' flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place
and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant
when you saw him this morning?" "That was not a threatening gesture" I said "it was a start of surprise.
I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Sumarra."
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