When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nur al-Din, "found the aire void[FN#546] and the fane afar," his heart sank within him and he wept floods of tears and recited these verses,[FN#547]
"The phantom of Soada came by nigh to wake me towards morning while my companions were sleeping in the desert: But when we awoke to behold the nightly phantom, I saw the air vacant, and the place of visitation distant."
Then Nur al-Din walked on along the sea-shore and turned right and left, till he saw folk gathered together on the beach and heard them say, "O Moslems, there remaineth no honour to Alexandria-city, since the Franks enter it and snatch away those who are therein and return to their own land, at their leisure[FN
