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Insane devil, Miriam thought at that moment.
“Where is ibn Tahir?”
Hasan lowered his eyes.
“Did you send him to your ‘bosom foe’?”
Now he fixed his eyes on her, his gaze taking her in completely.
“Didn’t you once say that you didn’t believe in anything in the world and that you were
afraid of nothing? Where is your strength, now that you have to endure the actions whose
weight I bear? You have a heart for the small things, but sometimes you need one for the big
things too.”
Just then Moad put his boat in at the waterfront. Rokaya hurried to Miriam. She was still
trembling all over. She didn’t turn to look at Hasan as she exclaimed, “Halima has jumped
into the river!”
Miriam clutched at her heart. She looked at Hasan, as though she wanted to say to him,
“This is your doing!”
Hasan was also startled. He asked for the details.
“So when she saw that they’d brought in Obeida instead of Suleiman, she ran away? And
you say that Obeida doesn’t believe he’s in paradise?”
He looked at Miriam, who had buried her face in her hands and was crying.
He stood up.

---

“See to it that everything goes as it should from now on!”
He went to the waterfront, where Adi was waiting for him in the boat.
“Back to the castle!” he ordered.
“I  want  you  to  strangle  the  one  in  the  middle  garden,”  he  told  the  eunuchs,  “once  you’re
alone  with  him.  Search  him  and  bring  me  everything  you  find  on  him.  Then  bury  him
alongside the other two from this morning at the far end of the gardens, at the foot of the
mountains. Send the pair from the other two gardens up to me.”
Stern and gloomy, he had himself hoisted up into his tower. Once at the top, he gave the
sign  that  the  time  had  come  to  leave  the  gardens.  He  was  glad  that  neither  Abu  Ali  nor
Buzurg Ummid was with him. What did he have left to talk about with them? He would have
to leave the world an explanation and apology for his actions. For the faithful, he would need
to  write  a  compilation  of  his  philosophy,  simply  and  in  metaphors.  To  his  heirs  he  would
need to reveal the final mysteries. There was a great deal of work still ahead of him. But life
was short and he was already old.
Exhausted to death, he returned to his room. He collapsed onto his bed and tried to go to
sleep, but he couldn’t. By day he was afraid of nothing. Now he saw Suleiman’s face, down to
the tiniest details. Yes, he had seemed to be happy. And yet, in the next instant the life was
extinguished within him. Great God! What a horrible experiment!
Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. Now he saw ibn Tahir riding toward Nehavend,
obsessed with a single thought. Yes, that’s where his mortal enemy was staying. His “opposite
principle,” the grand vizier Nizam al-Mulk, that brilliant and illustrious mind who professed
everything that mankind saw as great and good. And yet, somewhere beneath it all there was
a huge lie in him. He bowed down to mankind and its beliefs against the better convictions
that Hasan knew he had. He had won the hearts of the masses and become powerful. He had
achieved this through kindness, through generosity, and through more than a few concessions
to precious human desires. Was there even room for another who was equal to him? Nizam
al-Mulk had beat him at everything. He was more than ten years his senior. What option did
he have, but to resort to the “opposite path”? He, smiling, I, grim. He the forgiving one, I the
unyielding.  He  the  gentle  one,  I  the  terrifying  one.  And  yet  he  knew  that  the  vizier  was  also
capable of being ruthless and merciless. Even more than he. If I can force him to yield, I’ll be