'
'Madam,' said the young man, 'you have given me to understand that
you have a knowledge of the true God by the prayer you have just
now addressed to Him. I will acquaint you with the most remarkable
effect of His greatness and power. You must know that this city was
the metropolis of a mighty kingdom, over which the king, my father,
did reign. He, his whole court, the inhabitants of the city, and
all his other subjects were magi, worshippers of fire, and of
Nardoun, the ancient king of the giants, who rebelled against God.
'And though I had an idolatrous father and mother, I had the good
fortune in my youth to have a governess who was a good Mussulman; I
learned the Koran by heart, and understood the explanation of it
perfectly. "Dear prince," would she oftentimes say, "there is but
one true God; take heed that you do not acknowledge and adore any
other." She taught me to read Arabic, and the book she gave me to
practice upon was the Koran. As soon as I was capable of
understanding it, she explained to me all the heads of this
excellent book, and infused piety into my mind, unknown to my
father or anybody else. She happened to die, but not before she had
instructed me in all that was necessary to convince me of the truth
of the Mussulman religion.
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