In Cairo there was a cobbler called Maruf. He mended shoes for whatever the day would eat. Quiet days in his house were rare.
The two of them asked each other for what neither had, and it went on for years. One day he walks out of that house and keeps walking. He had not decided where to go.
When night came he put himself down in a ruin. Something there asks him where he wants to go. He opened his eyes at the gate of a city very far away.