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The sage picked up the boy and threw him into a fire.
The fakir jumped up and started to leave the house, crying out : 'Infamous demons! I have had my share of the sorrows of the world already, but this crime surpasses those of all recorded history !
*Think nothing of it', said the master of the house, 'for simple things appear otherwise when there is an absence of knowledge.'
So saying, he recited a formula and waved a strange emblem, and the boy walked out of the fire, unharmed.
The fakir memorized the words and the design, and the next morning was on his way back to the cemetery where his beloved was buried.
In less time than it takes to tell, the maiden stood before him, fully restored to life.
She went back to her father, while the youths desputed as to which of them had earned her hand.
The first said : 'I have been living in the graveyard, keeping, through my vigils, contact with her, guarding her spirit's needs for earthly support.
The second said : 'You both ignore the fact that it was I who actually travelled the world in search of knowledge, and who ultimately brought her back to life.'
The third said : 'I have grieved for her, and like a husband and son-in-low I have lived here, consoling the father, and helping with his upkeep.'
They appealed to the girl herself. She said :
"He who found the formula to restore me was a humanitarian; he who looked after my father acted as a son to him; he who lay beside my grave-he acted like a lover. I will marry him.'
(From : The way of the Sufi, P. 136-37-38)
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