‘From a fellow porter, Nathan heard about an island in which the trees bore women as their fruit. The women dangled off the branches, ripe and ready for plucking. But these women were poisonous, the slightest bit of their saliva or sweat could cause instantaneous death. Nathan heard about places where death couldn’t reach, where crops didn’t need to be planted or watered, where the barks of trees were made of cloths. Mountains could be smooth as enamel, sparrows could be larger than oxen and antelopes as small as mice. Places in which there was never day and places in which there was never night. Nathan heard that a captain seeking fur seals landed on the back of a whale, mistaking it for an island. Another captain, chasing an octopus, found the island of smoke and fire. Creation indeed was a wide and wonderful space where Nathan was but only a fleck.’

‘I know I’m a fleck,’ Iman interrupted. ‘It is men who have the largest egos, the biggest heads, the delusions of grandeur. They’re the ones who need these lessons, not me. There’s no pride in me.’

The Hoopoe did not reply. Her words dissolved in the air . . . there is no pride in me, no pride in me, no pride . . .

He then said, ‘A poor, helpless woman can have a higher spiritual standing than the mightiest of kings.’

She knew this, but she had forgotten it, laid it aside like any other ideal. ‘What about Nathan? Did he get on the ship?’

‘Yes,’ the Hoopoe replied. ‘On the ship to Jerusalem, his chains scraped across the wooden planks and the sounds disturbed the crew. They were jittery because of the bad weather they were encountering and their fear of pirates. A superstitious lot, they regarded Nathan as bad luck. It did not help that he introduced himself as a sinner in need of redemption, someone who had locked himself up in chains and thrown away the key. He was weighing down the ship. Dislike towards Nathan grew even more when the captain befriended him. This happened when the captain discovered that Nathan could read, write and, more importantly, play a good game of chess. It pleased the captain to find learned company, someone he could talk to about a diverse range of subjects, from monarchs to agriculture, from map making to astronomy.

‘The first mate became jealous of Nathan’s friendship with the captain. He mistreated Nathan by setting harder tasks for him on the ship and by giving him little or no food. Nathan accepted this as part of his penance. Wasn’t this why he had set out on this journey? He knew it would be a road littered with tricks. No matter how strong he was, or how weak, there would always be something heavy to carry. There would always be a puzzle that was hard to solve. Everything was mixed or running in parallel – the gains and the losses, the lies with the truth. Nathan did not report the first mate to the captain, but he did his best to remain in the captain’s company for as long as possible.