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It is also told that one day, at the hour of noon, the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, retired to his bed. When he climbed onto it, he found fresh semen upon the bedding. The sight appalled him, throwing him into a terrible temper and filling him with distress. He summoned Lady Zubayda, and when she stood before him, he said, “What is this upon the bed?” She looked at it and replied, “It is semen, Commander of the Faithful.” He said, “Tell me truthfully how it came to be here, or I shall punish you this very instant.” She replied, “Commander of the Faithful, by God, I know nothing of how it came to be here, and I am innocent of what you suspect.” He sent for the judge Abu Yusuf, told him what had happened, and showed him the semen. Abu Yusuf raised his head toward the ceiling and saw a crack in it. “Commander of the Faithful,” he said, “a bat has semen like a man’s, and this is the semen of a bat.” He called for a spear, took it in his hand, and thrust it into the crack. A bat fell out, and Harun al-Rashid’s suspicions were dispelled. But dawn overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, leaving her tale untold.

Then, when it was the three hundred and eighty-ninth night,

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when the judge Abu Yusuf took the spear in his hand and thrust it into the crack, the bat fell out, and Harun al-Rashid’s suspicions were dispelled and Zubayda’s innocence made plain. Overjoyed at her vindication, she spoke up and promised Abu Yusuf a generous reward. She had some splendid fruit that was out of season, and knew of another kind, also out of season, in the garden. She said to him, “O imam of the faith, which of the two fruits do you prefer: the one that is present or the one that is absent?” He replied, “Our school of law passes no judgment on the absent. Once it appears, judgment may be given.” So she had both kinds brought before him, and he ate of each. “What difference is there between them?” she asked. He replied, “Whenever I wish to praise one, the other rises to plead its case against me.” When al-Rashid heard his words, he laughed and bestowed a reward upon him. Zubayda, too, gave him the reward she had promised, and he left them well pleased. Consider, then, the excellence of the imam, and how through him Lady Zubayda’s innocence was established and the cause brought to light.