Celano and Bonaventure both wrote about the travels of Francis: "in the thirteenth year of his conversion he [Francis] set out for Syria at a time when great and severe battles were raging daily between the Christians and the Muslims; he took with him a companion, and he did not fear to present himself before the Sultan of the Saracens."
(I Celano XX, 57)
"When the Sultan saw his enthusiasm and courage, he listened to him willingly and pressed him to stay with him... The Sultan was lost in admiration at the sight of such perfect disregard for worldly wealth and he felt greater respect than ever for the saint"
(Major Life, Bonaventure, IX, 8 ).
An account of this same visit of Francis to the Sultan written some 100 years after the death of the saint, somewhat more embellished than the others, also underlines the admiration of the Sultan for Francis:"The Sultan willingly listened to him and asked him to come back to see him many times. Moreover, he generously granted permission to him and to his companions to go anywhere and to freely preach wherever they wished in all his empire."
(The Little Flowers of St. Francis, 24)