Everything was as the wise old man had said it would be , and the prince , who was skilled in all tongues , read the following Cufic inscription : ' O travellers ! be it known to you that this column has been set up with its tablet to give true directions about these roads . If a man would pass his life in ease and pleasantness , let him take the right-hand path . If he take the left , he will have some trouble , but he will reach his goal without much delay . Woe to him who chooses the middle path ! if he had a thousand lives he would not save one ; it is very hazardous ; it leads to the Caucasus , and is an endless road . Beware of it ! ' The prince read and bared his head and lifted his hands in supplication to Him who has no needs , and prayed , ' O Friend of the traveller ! I , Thy servant , come to Thee for succour . My purpose lies in the land of Qaf and my road is full of peril . Lead me by it . ' Then he took a handful of earth and cast it on his collar , and said : ' O earth ! be thou my grave ; and O vest ! tee thou my winding-sheet ! ' Then he took the middle road and went along it , day after day , with many a silent prayer , till he saw trees rise from the weary waste of sand . They grew in a garden , and he went up to the gate and found it a slab of beautifully worked marble , and that near it there lay sleeping , with his head on a stone , a negro whose face was so black that it made darkness round him . His upper lip , arched like an eyebrow , curved upwards to his nostrils and his lower hung down like a camel 's . Four millstones formed his shield , and on a box-tree close by hung his giant sword . His loin-cloth was fashioned of twelve skins of beasts , and was bound round his waist by a chain of which each link was as big as an elephant 's thigh . The prince approached and tied up his horse near the negro 's head .
Then he let fall the Bismillah XXXXX his lips , entered the garden and walked through it till he came to the private part , delighting in the great trees , the lovely verdure , and the flowery borders .
If along from in like of on that till without