Archibald James Portendorf, an Englishman, dreams of boarding an airship home as he ascends to the top of a tower in the great country of Egypt for a gathering of a secret society. There, he finds fellow hooded brethren of the Hermetic Brotherhood of al-Jahiz discussing impending war in Europe. Lord Alistair Worthington, head of the order, argues that, given the current age of industry and recovered ancient skills of alchemy and the mystic arts, “this world cannot afford war”; rather, “[t]he only way forward is peace, or we shall surely perish” (6).

As the meeting comes to order, Archibald reveals the scimitar of al-Jahiz, to great fanfare. However, the reaction is interrupted by a cloaked figure who snaps their fingers and multiplies until copies of them encircle the room. Another person then enters, claiming to be al-Jahiz himself, “the disappeared Soudanese mystic who had forever changed the world” (5).

Wesley Dalton, a mummy researcher obsessed with proving that the rulers of ancient Egypt were white, claims that al-Jahiz could not have been a Black man. The dark figure raises his arm, and the sword flies from its place on the table to his hand. When Dalton continues to protest, al-Jahiz twists the man’s head clean around.