The Mosque of the Sultan

By Arabian tomes we are told
He was just as a ruler and man,
The Caliph of Cairo the old,
The Sultan Hassan.

One day did he hear of the fame
Of a builder, and straightway he said, —
"I will mould me a mosque that my name
May outlive me, when dead!"

So he summoned this man to his throne,
And issued his royal decree; —
"Shape thou me a temple of stone
For the years that shall be!

"Uprear me a wonderful shrine
Where the Faithful of Allah may bow,
And glorious meed shall be thine,
Here record I the vow!"

Then the heart of the builder was light
As was ever the heart of a man;
And he toiled through the gloom of the night,
And he wrought him a plan, —

A plan of a mosque that should bind
His name with the name of his lord.
So the slaves brought the marble they mined,
And they worked in accord,

Till the mosque as by magic upsprang
In its symmetry flawless and grand,
And the praise of its loveliness rang
Through the length of the land.

But the name of the builder was cried
Till the Caliph grew wroth at the sound;
"Am I naught?" he would mutter in pride,
"Am I less than a hound,

"And this chiefest of upstarts so great
He eclipses the light of my throne?"
Thus the seeds of a pitiless hate
In his bosom were sown.

Now the mosque was complete. Without peer
Was the portal, majestic and tall;
The minarets tapering sheer
From the sweep of the wall.

"Call the builder!" said Sultan Hassan.
They ran at the word of their lord;
"My servant," he thought, as they ran,
"Shall now reap his reward."

At the steps of the throne knelt the one
Who had served like a slave at the soil;
Said the Caliph, "Thy task-work is done,
Here is meed for thy toil!

"Stretch thy hands! I would pay thee full well!"
The builder obeyed, in his trust;
Then a scimitar flashed, and they fell
Reeking red in the dust.

"No more," said the Caliph revered,
"I would have thee to build; I decree
It is honor enough, by my beard,
To have builded for me!"

By Arabian tomes we are told
He was just as a ruler and man,
The Caliph of Cairo the old,
The Sultan Hassan.