"Harry St John Philby had asked the King about the difficult early years when he had liberated his country from Rashidis. And Ibn Saud had answered: "Those were after all the best days of my life: the decisive phase, in comparison with which the rest has been easy-going: the years of struggle in the desert, with hunger and thirst ever present in company with danger: not a long period, ten years, perhaps, or a dozen in all; but every day of it full of enjoyment and good companionship, never to be forgotten.""
