Sheikh Maut

What was that? A cat’s shadow by moonlight? Or what was that now scudding past my sight? A cloud, or one who rides, who rides at dead of night? So told this tale a desert pilgrim to his son: "That day the sun seemed from my brow a camel's hair away. Below my feet burning liquid gold. Upon a dune a figure stood like none I ever saw. But for Allah's mercy I that day had died where on my kneesI fell. Was this Sheikh Maut, of whom once Abdul spake in fearful tone.’ The night Infant brother died, I saw an angel's shape lowering over the cradle where he lay and snatched me thought his very breath away? ' And many more have told such tales. Some say in black, some say in white some say in garbs of gold an purple stripe Sheikh Maut appears in palaces, or where the beggar cries:’ For Allah, and His mercy's sake a coin, a coin.' I heard no voice save that of sand and wind: 'Here all is one, the endless sea of land, but not to mock, he preaches unto deaf and blind. It is to teach the brotherhood of Man'"