There was a merchant in Baghdad, who sent his servant to the market to buy provisions and a little while later the servant came back, white and trembling.
He said "Master, just now when I was in the market place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now please lend me your horse and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samara and there death will not find me."
The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. The merchant went down to the market place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?"
"That was not a threatening gesture" I said "it was only a start of surprise, I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samara."
The narrator is death