It tramples the very cushions beneath him. Beha eddin, as he tells us, is horrified and alarmed at the same time. But the Sultan remains undisturbed. What time remained for the planning of his campaigns, for the visioning of brilliant battles, for the cunning scheming which overcame jealousies and brought all the turbulent emirs under the one banner of Saladin, chosen servant of the Prophet? The only answer is that for the really busy there is always time to do something more, and that for genius ordinary obstacles to accomplishment do not exist. As for the popular conception of a sultan as a lotus-eater, spending a great part of his time in the perfumed and secluded halls of a gorgeous palace, surrounded by beautiful concubines and lulled into trance-like dreams by continued watching of sensuous dances, that picture fades away in any consideration of the life and performance of Saladin.