In the night the same knight came again and said to him: ‘Alas’, says he, ‘get thee eastward from Mount Beleal with a large force, and this is the will of God; and if thou canst not pass between the mountain and the sea, fall on thy knees nine times, and make prayer to Almighty God with thy face eastward, and He will give thee a way.’ Khan did this, and the sea retreated nine feet from the edge of the mountain, and left a way for Khan between the mountain and itself. So Khan and his army fared over it, and so he conquered Cathay, the greatest kingdom in the world. Because of those nine kneelings and the nine feet which the sea retreated, the number nine is held thenceforward in great honour by Magnus Khan and his country.