Therewith he opened the basket and threw the fish before the Jew who admired it and said，'By the Pentateuch and the Ten Commandments，[203] I dreamt last night that the Virgin came to me and said，'Know，O Abu al-Sa'adat，that I have sent thee a pretty present！'and doubtless'tis this fish.'Then he turned to Khalifah and said to him，'By thy faith，hath any seen it but I？'Khalifah replied，'No by Allah and by Abu Bakr the Viridical，[204] none hath seen it save thou，O chief of the Jews！'Whereupon the Jew turned to one of his lads and said to him，'Come，carry this fish to my house and bid Sa'adah [205]
dress it and fry and broil it，against I make an end of my business and hie me home.'And Khalifah said，'Go，O my lad；let the master's wife fry some of it and broil the rest.'Answered the boy，'I hear and I obey，O my lord'and，taking the fish；went away with it to the house.Then the Jew put out his hand and gave Khalifah the fisherman a dinar，saying，'Take this for thyself，O Khalifah，and spend it on thy family.'When Khalifah saw the dinar on his palm，he took it，saying，'Laud to the Lord of Dominion！'as if he had never seen aught of gold in his life；
and went somewhat away；but，before he had gone far，he was minded of the ape's charge and turning back threw down the ducat；saying，'Take thy gold and give folk back their fish！ Dost thou make a laughing stock of folk？ The Jew hearing this thought he was jesting and offered him two dinars upon the other，but Khalifah said，'Give me the fish and no nonsense.How knewest thou I would sell it at this price？'Whereupon the Jew gave him two more dinars and said，'Take these five ducats for thy fish and leave greed.'So Khalifah hent the five dinars in hand and went away，rejoicing，and gazing and marvelling at the gold and saying，'Glory be to God！ There is not with the Caliph of Baghdad what is with me this day！'Then he ceased not faring on till he came to the end of the market-street，when he remembered the words of the ape and his charge，and returning to the Jew；threw him back the gold.Quoth he，'What aileth thee，O Khalifah？ Dost thou want silver in exchange for gold？'Khalifah replied；'I want nor dirhams nor dinars.I only want thee to give me back folk's fish.'With this the Jew waxed wroth and shouted out at him，saying，'O fisherman，thou bringest me a fish not worth a sequin and I give thee five for it；yet art thou not content！ Art thou Jinn-mad？ Tell me for how much thou wilt sell it.'Answered Khalifah，'I will not sell it for silver nor for gold，only for two sayings [206] thou shalt say me.'When the Jew heard speak of the'Two Sayings，'his eyes sank into his head，he breathed hard and ground his teeth for rage and said to him，'O nail-paring of the Moslems，wilt thou have me throw off my faith for the sake of thy fish，and wilt thou debauch me from my religion and stultify my belief and my conviction which I