The manuscript of this novel was begun on 4 April 1966 and completed on 8 May 1966. It was written in Graz on a small grey travel typewriter that I had borrowed, and comprised 86 densely typed pages of 42 lines each, without divisions, paragraphs or indentations.
In 2010 and 2011 the original manuscript was reviewed and rewritten digitally, with some changes made. Individual sentences and sections were omitted, a few sentences were exchanged or added, words replaced, and indentations made that are intended to make the text easier to read.
The front cover is based on a black-and-white collage entitled “Vision eines Harems” (KHM Cat. No. 255-1969), which I produced on 26 May 1969. The translation of the novel title into Arabic was redrawn by Hasso Hohmann, Graz.

The original manuscript was conceived as an experimental text.