The Yellow Cup and the Cold Water

After that he ordered that the yellow cup be brought, filled with cold water. Everyone drank water from that golden cup, from dawn until the time for sleep. They drank the water with delight, yet its level never dropped from all that drinking. Then the king said to the philosopher: this knowledge should not be hidden from me. What makes the water in this cup increase? Is it astronomy, or some device of India? He answered: O king, do not treat this cup as something worthless. For it was made over many years, and much hardship was endured for it. Astronomers came from every land, from every place where a famous master lived, gathered before Kayd, who made this cup, tracking the white day and the deep blue night. They observed the nature of the stars, and spent countless such days on the work. Take your proof from the magnet: someone made it draw iron to itself. By its very nature this cup became a drawer of water, pulling sweet water down from the sky. When its level runs low it draws in water, though no human eye, however clear, can see it happen. The wise man's words pleased the king, and his explanations proved useful to him. Piran spoke thus to Milad: for the sake of justice I hold to my pact with Kayd. I will not break it, so it may last; one must stand firm before its terms. For I received these four things from him, and I seek nothing more beyond them. He loaded two hundred pack animals with treasure, and set a hundred jeweled crowns upon them. He buried in the mountain everything he had, gold coins and unblemished gems. When the treasures vanished into the mountain, no one saw the face of the one who hid them. All that treasure, along with the man who concealed it, no one in the world ever saw again. From the treasure hidden away in the mountains, he brought back with him only a keepsake.