When it was the Sixty-first night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Chosro ë s wrote his son, 'Be not thou too open handed with thy troops, or they will be too rich to need thee; nor be thou niggardly with them, or they will murmur against thee. Give thy giving deliberately and confer thy favours advisedly; open thy hand to them in time of success and stint them not in time of distress.' There is a legend that a desert Arab came once to the Caliph Al- Mans ú r[FN262] and said, 'Starve thy dog and he shall follow thee.' When the Caliph heard his words, he was enraged with the Arab, but Abu 'l-Abb á s of T ú s said to him, 'I fear that if some other than thou should show him a scone, the dog would follow him and leave thee alone.' Thereupon the Caliph Al-Mansur's wrath
