The meeting and farewell took place as a substitute for a farewell. We boarded small boats and headed to Alexandria, staying on the blessed Nile for four days with no benefit. I have mentioned some of the countries and villages where we landed. Our entry into Alexandria was on Wednesday, the thirteenth day of the month of Sha'ban. We stayed there for twenty-three days in the palace of the benefactor. Our excursions into the city were few. I found it difficult to mention anything about it, except that it appeared to me to be like a village in its setting and condition, similar to the lands of the Franks, even though at that time I had not seen anything of the lands of the Franks at all. Rather, I understood this from what I saw there, and not from other parts of Egypt, due to the abundance of Franks there, and most of the common people spoke some of the Italian language and the like. This was confirmed to me after my arrival in Marseille, for Alexandria is a sample of Marseille and its model.

* Chapter Two * In mentioning a summary related to this city, which we have condensed from several Arabic and French books, and we have mentioned what appeared to us to be true. We say that Alexandria is attributed to Alexander the Philosopher, with a fatha on the hamza, and he is the one who killed Darius and ruled the lands. There are sixteen cities attributed to him, including a city in the land of India, a city in the land of Babylon, a city on the shore of the Great River, a city in Safad Samarkand, a city in Merv, the name of the city of Balkh, the Great Poem, the lands of Egypt, a village between Hama and Aleppo, a village on the Tigris near Wasit, from which is the writer Ahmed bin Al-Mukhtar bin Mubashir. A village between Mecca and Medina, and a city in the river courses in India, and five other cities. This is the end. And a city from Khurasan, the lands of Persia, and the attribution to it.