midnight
inquired the captain of the ciauses who were guarding the head . `` That which is the fairest of all , that which is nearest to his heart , that which he had the least hope of -- his own empire . '' These bold words were reported to the Sultan , and the Grand Signior summoned the Omarite dervish to the palace , and shut himself up alone with him till late at night . When the muezzin intoned the fifth namazat , towards midnight , Mahmoud dismissed the dervish . What they said to each other remained a secret known only to themselves . The fakir , on emerging from the Sultan 's dressing-room , plucked a piece of coal from a censer , and wrote on the white alabaster wall this sentence , `` Rather be a head without a hand than a hand without a head , '' and nobody but the Sultan understood that saying . Mahmoud commanded that nine purses of gold should be given to the dervish ; he gave him also the heads of Ali and of Ali 's three sons .