She reached out her hand and the serpent turned his head to watch her fingers come towards him. Then he invited them to be seated on a circle of eleven cushions that he had had prepared at five paces from the throne; he had them served with burq along with some sweet cakes that had a stale taste, and he said he was eager to learn from them, who had visited the fabled West, if truly there existed in that land all the wonders of which he had read in so many books that had passed through his hands?