about what the astrologer had foretold, and he was seized with remorse for having disobeyed his father. After struggling in the water for a whole day, he and every one of his companions drowned. The sea later cast their bodies onto a shore two days’ journey from his father’s home. Only a few days passed before the news reached the old man. He bore it with patience, seeking his reward from Allah, yet grief consumed him; he wasted away until he, too, died.

The inheritance was then divided among the merchant’s widow, his son, and his daughter. The son took a wife, and both the widow and the daughter also remarried. Thus everything the merchant had gathered passed into the hands of his wife’s new husband, his daughter’s husband, and his son’s wife; such is invariably the end of all that the unfortunate toil to amass.