“My story . . . is a strange and amazing one, which, if it could be engraved with needles at the corner of the eye, would be a lesson to those who would consider.”

(I.e., if a master calligrapher could by a miracle of his art write the entire story at the corner of an eye, it would then be read as a double miracle, one for the extraordinary events, one for the extraordinary art.)

—The Arabian Nights, translated (and annotated) by Husain Haddawy, 1992.