Si el vino es el enemigo de la religión, habré de devorar al enemigo de la religión.

Cautivar a una persona libre con amor es mejor que liberar a mil esclavos.

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.

To bind one free man with love is better than to release a thousand slaves.

El peor de los sabios es el que visita a un príncipe; el mejor príncipe es el que visita a un sabio.

Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey:

The sages who have compassed sea and land,
Their secret to search out and understand,
My mind misgives me if they ever solve
The scheme on which the universe is planned.