Editing Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (section)

===Part one===
Borges and his friend and collaborator, [[Adolfo Bioy Casares]], are developing their next book in a country house near [[Buenos Aires]], in 1940. In an observation, Bioy quotes that "mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of men" from a [[heresiarch]] of a land named '''Uqbar'''. Borges, impressed with the "memorable" sentence, asks for its source. Bioy replies that he read it in the chapter about Uqbar of the ''Anglo-American Cyclopaedia'', "a literal if inadequate reprint" of the 1902 edition of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. They check the book and are unable to find the said chapter, to Bioy's surprise.<ref>"Tlön...", p. 112</ref> The two then search for the name 'Uqbar' in numerous atlases and other encyclopedias, trying different alternative spellings, to no avail.

The following day, Bioy tells Borges he has found the chapter they were looking for in a different reprint of the same encyclopedia. The chapter, although brief and full of names unfamiliar to Borges and Bioy, entices their curiosity. It describes Uqbar as an obscure region, located in Iraq or [[Asia Minor]], with an all-fantastic literature taking place in the mythical worlds of Mlejnas and '''Tlön'''.<ref>"Tlön...", p. 113</ref> Afterwards, they keep searching for Uqbar in other sources, but are unable to find any mention.