During the great season of pilgrimage in Mecca, the Holy House was surrounded by thousands of worshippers walking around it in prayer.
Amid this sacred crowd, a strange thing happened.
A ragged man suddenly rushed forward, clutched the black covering of the Ka'aba, and cried out with all his heart:
"O God, make her angry with her husband again, so that I may know her once more!"
The people around him froze in shock.
Some gasped.Some shouted.Others seized him at once.
"This man has spoken wickedly in the holiest place on earth!" they cried.
They dragged him before the Emir of the Pilgrims and told him what the man had said.
The Emir was furious.
"Such a man deserves death!" he declared.
But the poor man fell on his knees and cried:
"O Emir, I beg you by the honor of the Prophet—hear my story first. Then do with me whatever you wish."
The Emir paused.
"Speak," he said.
The man began:
"O Emir, I am nothing but a sweep. I work in the slaughterhouses, carrying blood, waste, and animal remains to the garbage pits outside the city. My clothes stink, and people avoid me."
One day, as he walked through the city with his donkey loaded with filth, he saw crowds running in fear.
"Go into that alley!" someone shouted. "They will beat you if you stay here!"
He asked what was happening, and a eunuch told him:
"A great lady of the city is passing through. Her guards drive everyone away so no one dares look at her."
The sweep moved aside.
Then he saw a group of eunuchs with sticks, followed by about thirty beautiful slave women.
In the middle walked a lady of breathtaking beauty—tall, graceful, and glowing like a gazelle in the desert.
When she reached the alley where the sweep stood, she glanced at him, whispered something to a eunuch, and walked on.
At once, one eunuch seized the sweep and another led his donkey away.
The people protested:
"What has this poor man done?"
But the eunuchs ignored them and dragged him along.
The sweep thought:
"Surely I am being punished because I stink of blood and filth. Perhaps the lady felt sick from the smell."
He was dragged into a magnificent house and into a great hall filled with rich furniture.
Terrified, he thought he would be tortured.
Instead, he was taken into a private bath.
Three beautiful slave girls entered.
"Remove your clothes," they said.
They washed him, scrubbed him, and perfumed him until not a trace of filth remained.
They dressed him in fine clothes and sprinkled him with rose water.
Then they led him into a luxurious chamber.
There sat the noble lady on a jeweled couch.
She called him to her side.
Food was brought—dishes more delicious than anything he had ever seen.
Then wine, perfumes, and music.
He drank and ate, hardly believing what was happening.
Later, a bed was prepared.
She took his hand and led him to it.
That night, he lay with her, breathing in her sweet perfume, convinced he must be dreaming.
At dawn she gave him a silk handkerchief and said, "Go to the bath."
Inside it were fifty gold coins.
This happened again the next day. And the next.
For eight days he lived this secret life, going to her every afternoon and leaving at dawn.
On the eighth night, a slave girl rushed in.
"Hide!" she whispered.
The sweep was locked into a closet above the gate.
From there he saw a handsome young man arrive with soldiers and servants.
The lady welcomed him—it was her husband.
That night the husband and wife were together.
In the morning he left.
The lady then told the sweep the truth:
"My husband once betrayed me with a cookmaid. I swore that I would sleep with the filthiest man in Baghdad in revenge. That man was you."
She had kept her oath.
Now she dismissed him with another fifty gold coins.
But she added:
"If my husband betrays me again, I will call you back."
The sweep left in tears, mad with longing.
So he went to Mecca and prayed that her husband would betray her again.
When the Emir heard the full story, he sighed.
"This man is not wicked," he said. "He is only foolish and broken by desire."
He set him free and said to the crowd:
"Pray for him, for he is excusable."