A devil among the people said to him: "O King, if this Person who appeared to us from this ship—which emerged from this Great Sea—were as he says, that he is the Lord of the Time who rules over kings, he would have appeared to us from the place we know. But he is a devil whom the sea has cast up, so be wary of him and hasten against him before his thorn grows strong and high and his helpers and men increase."

The King ordered that he be seized and carried to his palace. When he arrived at the palace and the assembly was established, the King ordered that the beasts of prey and elephants be brought out. They were brought into the courtyard of the palace. He ordered that the man be thrown to the beasts of prey, and he was thrown. When the beasts saw him, they turned on their heels, fleeing from before him. Then he was thrown to the elephants; when the elephants saw him, they fled from before him. When the King saw this, the man’s affair terrified him. He ordered that he be detained in a place and guarded, that the doors be locked upon him, and that neither food nor drink be carried to him. They did so.

He remained for several days with no one entering unto him or knowing his state. One day, while the King was sitting, the guard in charge of him came and said: "O King, the man has gone out from the place where he was!" The King said to him: "Woe to you! How could that be?" He said: "I have no knowledge."

The King rose and saw him, and he had not moved from his place. He said to the guard: "Woe to you! You lied to me!" The man swore that for two days he had been searching for him everywhere to seize him but did not find him, and that the place where he was had been empty of him for two days.

The King had a cave carved from a narrow, dark rock, with two great doors that only many men could move. When he was angry with a man, he would imprison him therein and lock the doors upon him, and the man would die of starvation and confinement (ṣabran). He ordered that the man be imprisoned in this cave. He was imprisoned therein, the