“The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” tells a total of four stories. It begins narrated in the first-person, as the fabric merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas recounts a “strange tale” to the caliph, or chief Muslim ruler (3). While shopping for a gift in Baghdad, Fuwaad stumbles into a new shop in the metalsmith district and is in awe of the “igneous mechanisms” he finds inside (4). He meets the shop owner, the knowledgeable Bashaarat, who leads him further into the store. They approach a “stout metal hoop” (5), and Bashaarat sticks his arm in. To Fuwaad’s amazement, Bashaarat’s arm is delayed in coming out the other side of the hoop. Fuwaad believes this to be a gimmick, but Bashaarat explains, “The right side of the hoop precedes the left by several seconds. To pass through the hoop is to cross the duration instantly” (6). Bashaarat calls this a “Gate of Seconds” (8).

Complicating matters further, Bashaarat leads Fuwaad to a doorway made of the same metal as the hoop. The doorway is a “Gate of Years” (8); when someone steps through, they move 20 years into the past or future, depending on the side they enter from.