APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/text/books/arabian/ARABIAN_2

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                 THE ELDEST LADY'S TALE


VERILY a strange tale is mine and 'tis this: Yon two black bitches
are my eldest sisters by one mother and father, and these two others
she who beareth upon her the signs of stripes and the third our
procuratrix, are my sisters by another mother. When my father died,
each took her share of the heritage and after a while my mother also
deceased, leaving me and my sisters german three thousand dinars, so
each daughter received her portion of a thousand dinars and I the
same, albe' the youngest. In due course of time my sisters married
with the usual festivities and lived with their husbands, who bought
merchandise with their wives' moneys and set out on their travels
together. Thus they threw me off. My brothers-in-law were absent
with their wives five years, during which period they spent all the
money they had and, becoming bankrupt, deserted my sisters in
foreign parts amid stranger folk.

After five years my eldest sister returned to me in beggar's gear
with her clothes in rags and tatters and a dirty old mantilla, and
truly she was in the foulest and sorriest plight. At first sight I did
not know my own sister, but presently I recognized her and said, "What
state is this?" "O our sister," she replied, "words cannot undo the
done, and the reed of Destiny hath run through what Allah decreed."
Then I sent her to the bath and dressed her in a suit of mine own, and
boiled for her a bouillon and brought her some good wine, and said
to her: "O my sister, thou art the eldest, who still standest to us in
the stead of father and mother, and as for the inheritance which
came to me as to you twain, Allah hath blessed it and prospered it
to me with increase, and my circumstances are easy, for I have made
much money by spinning and cleaning silk. And I and you will share
my wealth alike."

I entreated her with all kindliness and she abode with me a whole
year, during which our thoughts and fancies were always full of our
other sister. Shortly after she too came home in yet fouler and
sorrier plight than that of my eldest sister, and I dealt by her still
more honorably than I had done by the first, and each of them had a
share of my substance. After a time they said to me, "O our sister, we
desire to marry again, for indeed we have not patience to drag on
our days without husbands and to lead the lives of widows
bewitched," and I replied: "O eyes of me! Ye have hitherto seen scanty
weal in wedlock, for nowadays good men and true are become rareties
and curiosities, nor do I deem your projects advisable, as ye have
already made trial of matrimony and have failed." But they would not
accept my advice, and married without my consent. Nevertheless I
gave them outfit and dowries out of my money, and they fared forth
with their mates.

In a mighty little time their husbands played them false and, taking
whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the
lurch. Thereupon they came to me ashamed and in abject case and made
their excuses to me, saying: "Pardon our fault and be not wroth with
us, for although thou art younger in years yet art thou older in
wit. Henceforth we will never make mention of marriage, so take us
back as thy handmaidens that we may eat our mouthful." Quoth I,
"Welcome to you, O my sisters, there is naught dearer to me than you."
And I took them in and redoubled my kindness to them. We ceased not to
live after this loving fashion for a full year, when I resolved to
sell my wares abroad and first to fit me a conveyance for Bassorah. So
I equipped a large ship, and loaded her with merchandise and
valuable goods for traffic and with provaunt and all needful for a
voyage, and said to my sisters, "Will ye abide at home whilst I
travel, or would ye prefer to accompany me on the voyage?" "We will
travel with thee," answered they, "for we cannot bear to be parted
from thee." So I divided my moneys into two parts, one to accompany me
and the other to be left in charge of a trusty person, for, as I
said to myself, "Haply some accident may happen to the ship and yet we
remain alive, in which case we shall find on our return what may stand
us in good stead."

I took my two sisters and we went a-voyaging some days and nights,
but the master was careless enough to miss his course, and the ship
went astray with us and entered a sea other than the sea we sought.
For a time we knew naught of this, and the wind blew fair for us ten
days, after which the lookout man went aloft to see about him and
cried, "Good news!" Then he came down rejoicing and said, "I have seen
what seemeth to be a city as 'twere a pigeon." Hereat we rejoiced, and
ere an hour of the day had passed, the buildings showed plain in the
offing, and we asked the Captain, "What is the name of yonder city?"
and he answered: "By Allah, I wot not, for I never saw it before and
never sailed these seas in my life. But since our troubles have ended
in safety, remains for you only to land where with your merchandise,
and if you find selling profitable, sell and make your market of
what is there, and if not, we will rest here two days and provision
ourselves and fare away."

So we entered the port and the Captain went up town and was absent
awhile, after which he returned to us and said, "Arise, go up into the
city and marvel at the works of Allah with His creatures, and pray
to be preserved from His righteous wrath!" So we landed, and going
up into the city, saw at the gate men hending staves in hand, but when
we drew near them, behold, they had been translated by the anger of
Allah and had become stones. Then we entered the city and found all
who therein woned into black stones enstoned. Not an inhabited house
appeared to the espier, nor was there a blower of fire. We were
awe-struck at the sight, and threaded the market streets, where we
found the goods and gold and silver left lying in their places, and we
were glad and said, "Doubtless there is some mystery in all this."

Then we dispersed about the thoroughfares and each busied himself
with collecting the wealth and money and rich stuffs, taking scanty
heed of friend or comrade.

As for myself, I went up to the castle, which was strongly
fortified, and, entering the King's palace by its gate of red gold,
found all the vaiselle of gold and silver, and the King himself seated
in the midst of his chamberlains and nabobs and emirs and wazirs, an
clad in raiment which confounded man's art. I drew nearer and saw
him sitting on a throne encrusted and inlaid with pearls and gems, and
his robes were of gold cloth adorned with jewels of every kind, each
one flashing like a star. Around him stood fifty Mamelukes, white
slaves, clothed in silks of divers sorts, holding their drawn swords
in their hands. But when I drew near to them, lo! all were black
stones. My understanding was confounded at the sight, but I walked
on and entered the great hall of the harem, whose walls I found hung
with tapestries of gold-striped silk, and spread with silken carpets
embroidered with golden flowers. Here I saw the Queen lying at full
length arrayed in robes purfled with fresh young pearls. On her head
was a diadem set with many sorts of gems each fit for a ring, and
around her neck hung collars and necklaces. All her raiment and her
ornaments were in natural state, but she had been turned into a
black stone by Allah's wrath.

Presently I espied an open door, for which I made straight, and
found leading to it a flight of seven steps. So I walked up and came
upon a place pargeted with marble and spread and hung with gold-worked
carpets and tapestry, a-middlemost of which stood a throne of
juniper wood inlaid with pearls and precious stones and set with
bosses of emeralds. In the further wall was an alcove whose
curtains, bestrung with pearls, were let down and I saw a light
issuing therefrom, so I drew near and perceived that the light came
from a precious stone as big as an ostrich egg, set at the upper end
of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of ivory and
gold. And this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays wide and
side. The couch also was spread with all manner of silken stuffs
amazing the gazer with their richness and beauty. I marveled much at
all this, especially when seeing in that place candies ready
lighted, and I said in my mind, "Needs must someone have lighted these
candles." Then I went forth and came to the kitchen and thence to
the buttery and the King's treasure chambers, and continued to explore
the palace and to pace from place to place. I forgot myself in my
awe and marvel at these matters and I was drowned in thought till
the night came on.

Then I would have gone forth, but knowing not the gate, I lost my
way, so I returned to the alcove whither the lighted candles
directed me and sat down upon the couch, and wrapping myself in a
coverlet, after I had repeated somewhat from the Koran, I would have
slept but could not, for restlessness possessed me. When night was
at its noon I heard a voice chanting the Koran in sweetest accents,
but the tone thereof was weak. So I rose, glad to hear the silence
broken, and followed the sound until I reached a closet whose door
stood ajar. Then, peeping through a chink, I considered the place
and lo! it was an oratory wherein was a prayer niche with two wax
candles burning and lamps hanging from the ceiling. In it too was
spread a prayer carpet whereupon sat a youth fair to see, and before
him on its stand was a copy of the Koran, from which he was reading. I
marveled to see him alone alive amongst the people of the city and
entering, saluted him. Whereupon he raised his eyes and returned my
salaam. Quoth I, "Now by the truth of what thou readest in Allah's
Holy Book, I conjure thee to answer my question." He looked upon me
with a smile and said: "O handmaid of Allah, first tell me the cause
of thy coming hither, and I in turn will tell what hath befallen
both me and the people of this city, and what was the reason of my
escaping their doom." So I told him my story, whereat he wondered, and
I questioned him of the people of the city, when he replied, "Have
patience with me for awhile, O my sister!" and, reverently closing the
Holy Book, he laid it up in a satin bag. Then he seated me by his
side, and I looked at him and behold, he was as the moon at its
full, fair of face and rare of form, soft-sided and slight, of
well-proportioned height, and cheek smoothly bright and diffusing
light. I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a
thousand sighs, and my heart was at once taken captive-wise, so I
asked him, "O my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I questioned
thee," and he answered:

"Hearing is obeying! Know, O handmaid of Allah, that this city was
the capital of my father who is the King thou sawest on the throne
transfigured by Allah's wrath to a black stone, and the Queen thou
foundest in the alcove is my mother. They and all the people of the
city were Magians who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent Lord and
were wont to swear by lowe and heat and shade and light, and the
spheres revolving day and night. My father had ne'er a son till he was
blest with me near the last of his days, and he reared me till I
grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now it is
fortuned there was with us an old woman well stricken in years, a
Moslemah who, inwardly believing in Allah and His Apostle, conformed
outwardly with the religion of my people. And my father placed
thorough confidence in her for that he knew her to be trustworthy
and virtuous, and he treated her with ever-increasing kindness,
believing her to be of his own belief.

"So when I was well-nigh grown up my father committed me to her
charge saying: 'Take him and educate him and teach him the rules of
our faith. Let him have the best instructions and cease not thy
fostering care of him.' So she took me and taught me the tenets of
Al-Islam with the divine ordinances of the wuzu ablution and the
five daily prayers and she made me learn the Koran by rote, often
repeating, 'Serve none save Allah Almighty!' When I had mastered
this much of knowledge, she said to me, 'O my son, keep this matter
concealed from thy sire and reveal naught to him, lest he slay
thee." So I hid it from him, and I abode on this wise for a term of
days, when the old woman died, and the people of the city redoubled in
their impiety and arrogance and the error of their ways.

"One day while they were as wont, behold, they heard a loud and
terrible sound and a crier crying out with a voice like roaring
thunder so every ear could hear, far and near: 'O folk of this city,
leave ye your fire-worshiping and adore Allah the All-compassionate
King!" At this, fear and terror fell upon the citizens and they
crowded to my father (he being King of the city) and asked him:
'What is this awesome voice we have heard; for it hath confounded us
with the excess of its terror?' And he answered: 'Let not a voice
fright you nor shake your steadfast sprite nor turn you back from
the faith which is right.' Their hearts inclined to his words and they
ceased not to worship the fire and they persisted in rebellion for a
full year from the time they heard the first voice. And on the
anniversary came a second cry, and a third at the head of the third
year, each year once.

Still they persisted in their malpractices till one day at break
of dawn, judgment and the wrath of Heaven descended upon them with all
suddenness, and by the visitation of Allah all were metamorphosed into
black stones, they and their beasts and their cattle, and none was
saved save myself, who at the time was engaged in my devotions. From
that day to this I am in the case thou seest, constant in prayer and
fasting and reading and reciting the Koran, but I am indeed grown
weary by reason of my loneliness, having none to bear me company."

Then said I to him (for in very sooth he had won my heart and was
the lord of my life and soul): "O youth, wilt thou fare with me to
Baghdad city and visit the Ulema and men teamed in the law and doctors
of divinity and get thee increase of wisdom and understanding and
theology? And know that she who standeth in thy presence will be thy
handmaid, albeit she be head of her family and mistress over men and
eunuchs and servants and slaves. Indeed my life was no life before
it fell in with thy youth. I have here a ship laden with
merchandise, and in very truth Destiny drove me to this city that I
might come to the knowledge of these matters, for it was fated that we
should meet." And I ceased not to persuade him and speak him fair
and use every art till he consented. I slept that night at his feet
and hardly knowing where I was for excess of joy.

As soon as the next morning dawned (she pursued, addressing the
Caliph), I arose and we entered the treasuries and took thence
whatever was light in weight and great in worth. Then we went down
side by side from the castle to the city, where we were met by the
Captain and my sisters and slaves, who had been seeking for me. When
they saw me, they rejoiced and asked what had stayed me, and I told
them all I had seen and related to them the story of the young
Prince and the transformation wherewith the citizens had been justly
visited. Hereat all marveled, but when my two sisters (these two
bitches, O Commander of the Faithful!) saw me by the side of my
young lover, they jaloused me on his account and were wroth and
plotted mischief against me. We awaited a fair wind and went on
board rejoicing and ready to fly for joy by reason of the goods we had
gotten, but my own greatest joyance was in the youth. And we waited
awhile till the wind blew fair for us and then we set sail and fared
forth.

Now as we sat talking, my sisters asked me, "And what wilt thou do
with this handsome young man?" and I answered, "I purpose to make
him my husband!" Then I turned to him and said: "O my lord, I have
that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me, and this it is
that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as
thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and
I will be femme to thee." He answered, "I hear and I obey! Thou art my
lady and my mistress and whatso thou doest I will not gainsay." Then I
turned to my sisters and said: "This is my gain. I content me with
this youth and those who have gotten aught of my property, let them
keep it as their gain with my goodwill." "Thou sayest and doest well,"
answered the twain, but they imagined mischief against me.

We ceased not spooning before a fair wind till we had exchanged
the sea of peril for the seas of safety, and in a few days we made
Bassorah city, whose buildings loomed clear before us as evening fell.
But after we had retired to rest and were sound asleep, my two sisters
arose and took me up, bed and all, and threw me into the sea. They did
the same with the young Prince, who, as he could not swim, sank and
was drowned, and Allah enrolled him in the noble army of martyrs. As
for me, would Heaven I had been drowned with him, but Allah deemed
that I should be of the saved, so when I awoke and found myself in the
sea and saw the ship making off like a flash of lightning, He threw in
my way a piece of timber, which I bestrided, and the waves tossed me
to and fro till they cast me upon an island coast, a high land and
an uninhabited. I landed and walked about the island the rest of the
night, and when morning dawned, I saw a rough track barely fit for
child of Adam to tread, leading to what proved a shallow ford
connecting island and mainland.

As soon as the sun had risen I spread my garments to dry in its
rays, and ate of the fruits of the island and drank of its waters.
Then I set out along the foot track and ceased not walking till I
reached the mainland. Now when there remained between me and the
city but a two hours' journey, behold, a great serpent, the bigness of
a date palm, came fleeing toward me in all haste, gliding along now to
the right, then to the left, till she was close upon me, whilst her
tongue lolled groundward a span long and swept the dust as she went.
She was pursued by a dragon who was not longer than two lances, and of
slender build about the bulk of a spear, and although her terror
lent her speed and she kept wriggling from side to side, he overtook
her and seized her by the tail, whereat her tears streamed down and
her tongue was thrust out in her agony. I took pity on her and,
picking up a stone and calling upon Allah for aid, threw it at the
dragon's head with such force that he died then and there, and the
serpent, opening a pair of wings, flew into the lift and disappeared
from before my eyes.

I sat down marveling over that adventure, but I was weary and,
drowsiness overcoming me, I slept where I was for a while. When I
awoke I found a jet-black damsel sitting at my feet shampooing them,
and by her side stood two black bitches (my sisters, O Commander of
the Faithful!). I was ashamed before her and, sitting up, asked her,
"O my sister, who and what art thou?" and she answered: "How soon hast
thou forgotten me! I am she for whom thou wroughtest a good deed and
sowedest the seed of gratitude and slewest her foe, for I am the
serpent whom by Allah's aidance thou didst just now deliver from the
dragon. I am a Jinniyah and he was a Jinn who hated me, and none saved
my life from him save thou. As soon as thou freedest me from him I
flew on the wind to the ship whence thy sisters threw thee, and
removed all that was therein to thy house. Then I ordered my attendant
Marids to sink the ship, and I transformed thy two sisters into
these black bitches, for I know all that hath passed between them
and thee. But as for the youth, of a truth he is drowned."

So saying, she flew up with me and the bitches, and presently set us
down on the terrace roof of my house, wherein I found ready stored the
whole of what property was in my ship, nor was aught of it missing.
"Now (continued the serpent that was), I swear by all engraven on
the seal ring of Solomon (with whom be peace!) unless thou deal to
each of these bitches three hundred stripes every day I will come
and imprison thee forever under the earth." I answered, "Hearkening
and obedience!" and away she flew. But before going she again
charged me saying, "I again swear by Him who made the two seas flow
(and this be my second oath), if thou gainsay me I will come and
transform thee like thy sisters." Since then I have never failed, O
Commander of the Faithful, to beat them with that number of blows till
their blood flows with my tears, I pitying them the while, and well
they wot that their being scourged is no fault of mine and they accept
my excuses. And this is my tale and my history!

               THE TALE OF THE THREE APPLES


THEY relate, O King of the Age and Lord of the Time and of these
days, that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar one
night and said to him: "I desire to go down into the city and question
the common folk concerning the conduct of those charged with its
governance, and those of whom they complain we will depose from office
and those whom they commend we will promote." Quoth Ja'afar,
"Hearkening and obedience!"

So the Caliph went down with Ja'afar and the eunuch Masrur to the
town and walked about the streets and markets, and as they were
threading a narrow alley, they came upon a very old man with a fishing
net and crate to carry small fish on his head, and in his hands a
staff, and as he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated these lines:

   "They say me: 'Thou shinest a light to mankind
   With thy lore as the night which the Moon doth uplight!'
   I answer, 'A truce to your jests and your gibes.
   Without luck what is learning?- a poor-devil wight!
   If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch,
   With my volumes to read and my ink case to write,
   For one day's provision they never could pledge me,
   As likely on Doomsday to draw bill at sight.'
   How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor,
   With his pauper existence and beggarly plight.
   In summer he faileth provision to find,
   In winter the fire pot's his only delight.
   The street dogs with bite and with bark to him rise,
   And each losel receives him with bark and with bite.
   If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong,
   None pities or heeds him, however he's right,
   And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave,
   His happiest homestead were down in the grave."

When the Caliph heard his verses, he said to Ja'afar, "See this poor
man and note his verses, for surely they point to his necessities."
Then he accosted him and asked, "O Sheikh, what be thine
occupation?" And the poor man answered: "O my lord, I am a fisherman
with a family to keep and I have been out between midday and this
time, and not a thing hath Allah made my portion wherewithal to feed
my family. I cannot even pawn myself to buy them a supper, and I
hate and disgust my life and I hanker after death." Quoth the
Caliph, "Say me, wilt thou return with us to Tigris' bank and cast thy
net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth up I will buy of thee for a
hundred gold pieces?" The man rejoiced when he heard these words and
said: "On my head be it! I will go back with you," and, returning with
them riverward, made a cast and waited a while.

Then he hauled in the rope and dragged the net ashore and there
appeared in it a chest, padlocked and heavy. The Caliph examined it
and lifted it, finding, it weighty, so he gave the fisherman two
hundred dinars and sent him about his business whilst Masrur, aided by
the Caliph, carried the chest to the palace and set it down and
lighted the candles. Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found
therein a basket of palm leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut
open and saw within it a piece of carpet, which they lifted out, and
under it was a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out,
and at the bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as
a silver ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the Caliph
looked upon her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his cheeks and
turning to Ja'afar, he said: "O dog of Wazirs, shall folk be
murdered in our reign and be cast into the river to be a burden and
a responsibility for us on the Day of Doom? By Allah, we must avenge
this woman on her murderer, and he shall be made die the worst of
deaths!"

And presently he added: "Now, as surely as we are descended from the
Sons of Abbas, if thou bring us not him who slew her, that we do her
justice on him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee and
forty of thy kith and kin by thy side." And the Caliph was wroth
with exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay,"
and quoth the Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from
before him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and saying to
himself: "How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I may
bring him before the Caliph? If I bring other than the murderer, it
will be laid to my charge by the Lord. In very sooth I wot not what to
do." He kept his house three days, and on the fourth day the Caliph
sent one of the chamberlains for him, and as he came into the
presence, asked him, "Where is the murderer of the damsel?" To which
answered Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, am I inspector of
murdered folk that I should ken who killed her?" The Caliph was
furious at his answer and bade hang him before the palace gate, and
commanded that a crier cry through the streets of Baghdad: "Whoso
would see the hanging of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph,
with forty of the Barmecides, his cousins and kinsmen, before the
palace gate, let him come and let him look!" The people flocked out
from all the quarters of the city to witness the execution of
Ja'afar and his kinsmen, not knowing the cause.

Then they set up the gallows and made Ja'afar and the others stand
underneath in readiness for execution, but whilst every eye was
looking for the Caliph's signal, and the crowd wept for Ja'afar and
his cousins of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a young man fair of face
and neat of dress and of favor like the moon raining fight, with
eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and cheeks red as rose
and young down where the beard grows, and a mole like a grain of
ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he stood immediately
before the Wazir and said to him: "Safety to thee from this strait,
O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the Poor! I am the man who slew
the woman ye found in the chest, so hang me for her and do her justice
on me!" When Ja'afar heard the youth's confession he rejoiced at his
own deliverance, but grieved and sorrowed for the fair youth.

And whilst they were yet talking, behold, another man well
stricken in years pressed forward through the people and thrust his
way amid the populace till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he
saluted, saying: "Ho, thou the Wazir and Prince sans peer! Believe not
the words of this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I.
Take her wreak on me this moment, for an thou do not thus, I will
require it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth the young man:
"O Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he
saith ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her on
me!" Quoth the old man: "O my son, thou art young and desirest the
joys of the world and I am old and weary and surfeited with the world.
I will offer my life as a ransom for thee and for the Wazir and his
cousins. No one murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make
haste to hang me, for no life is left in me now that hers is gone."

The Wazir marveled much at all this strangeness and taking the young
man and the old man, carried them before the Caliph, where, after
kissing the ground seven times between his hands, he said, "O
Commander of the Faithful, I bring thee the murderer of the damsel!"
"Where is he?" asked the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered: "This young man
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and this old man, giving him the lie,
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and behold, here are the twain standing
before thee." The Caliph looked at the old man and the young man and
asked, "Which of you killed the girl?" The young man replied, "No
one slew her save I," and the old man answered, "Indeed none killed
her but myself." Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar, "Take the twain
and hang them both." But Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one of them was
the murderer, to hang the other were mere injustice." "By Him who
raised the firmament and dispread the earth like a carpet," cried
the youth, "I am he who slew the damsel," and he went on to describe
the manner of her murder and the basket, the mantilla, and the bit
of carpet- in fact, all that the Caliph had found upon her.

So the Caliph was certified that the young man was the murderer,
whereat he wondered and asked him: "What was the cause of thy
wrongfully doing this damsel to die, and what made thee confess the
murder without the bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up
thy life, and what made thee say 'Do her wreak upon me'?" The youth
answered: "Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that this woman was my
wife and the mother of my children, also my first cousin and the
daughter of my paternal uncle, this old man, who is my father's own
brother. When I married her she was a maid, and Allah blessed me
with three male children by her. She loved me and served me and I
saw no evil in her, for I also loved her with fondest love. Now on the
first day of this month she fell ill with grievous sickness and I
fetched in physicians to her, but recovery came to her little by
little, and when I wished her to go to the hammam bath, she said,
'There is something I long for before I go to the bath, and I long for
it with an exceeding longing.' 'To hear is to comply,' said I. 'And
what is it?' Quoth she, 'I have a queasy craving for an apple, to
smell it and bite a bit of it.' I replied, 'Hadst thou a thousand
longings, I would try to satisfy them!' So I went on the instant
into the city and sought for apples, but could find none, yet had they
cost a gold piece each, would I have bought them. I was vexed at
this and went home and said, 'O daughter of my uncle, by Allah I can
find none!' She was distressed, being yet very weakly, and her
weakness increased greatly on her that night and I felt anxious and
alarmed on her account.

"As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the round of
the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last there
met me an old gardener, of whom I asked about them and he answered, 'O
my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is not now to be found save
in the garden of the Commander of the Faithful at Bassorah, where
the gardener keepeth it for the Caliph's eating.' I returned to my
house troubled by my ill success, and my love for my wife and my
affection moved me to undertake the journey, So I at me ready and
set out and traveled fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and
brought her three apples, which I bought from the gardener for three
dinars. But when I went in to my wife and set them before her, she
took no pleasure in them and let them lie by her side, for her
weakness and fever had increased on her, and her malady lasted without
abating ten days, after which she began to recover health.

"So I left my house and betaking me to my shop, sat there buying and
selling. And about midday, behold, a great ugly black slave, long as a
lance and broad as a bench, passed by my shop holding in hand one of
the three apples, wherewith he was playing, Quoth I, `O my good slave,
tell me whence thou tookest that apple, that I may get the like of
it?' He laughed and answered: `I got it from my mistress, for I had
been absent and on my return I found her lying ill with three apples
by her side, and she said to me, "My horned wittol of a husband made a
journey for them to Bassorah and bought them for three dinars." 'So
I ate and drank with her and took this one from her.' When I heard
such words from the slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world grew
black before my face, and I arose and locked up my shop and went
home beside myself for excess of rage. I looked for the apples and
finding, only two of the three, asked my wife, `O my cousin, where
is the third apple?' And raising her head languidly, she answered,
`I wot not, O son of my uncle, where 'tis gone!' This convinced me
that the slave had spoken the truth, so I took a knife and coming
behind her, got upon her breast without a word said and cut her
throat. Then I hewed off her head and her limbs in pieces and,
wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet, hurriedly sewed up
the whole, which I set in a chest and, locking it tight, loaded it
on my he-mule and threw it into the Tigris with my own hands.

"So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful, make haste to hang
me, as I fear lest she appeal for vengeance on Resurrection Day. For
when I had thrown her into the river and one knew aught of it, as I
went back home I found my eldest son crying, and yet he knew naught of
what I had done with his mother. I asked him, 'What hath made thee
weep, my boy?' and he answered, 'I took one of the three apples
which were by my mammy and went down into the lane to play with my
brethren when behold, a big long black slave snatched it from my
hand and said, "Whence hadst thou this?" Quoth I, "My father
traveled far for it, and brought it from Bassorah for my mother, who
was ill, and two other apples for which he paid three ducats." 'He
took no heed of my words and I asked for the apple a second and a
third time, but he cuffed me and kicked me and went off with it. I was
afraid lest my mother should swinge me on account of the apple, so for
fear of her I went with my brother outside the city and stayed there
till evening closed in upon us, and indeed I am in fear of her. And
now, by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of this or it may add
to her ailment!"

"When I heard what my child said, I knew that the slave was he who
had foully slandered my wife, the daughter of my uncle, and was
certified that I had slain her wrongfully. So I wept with exceeding
weeping and presently this old man, my paternal uncle and her
father, came in, and I told him what had happened and he sat down by
my side and wept, and we ceased not weeping till midnight. We have
kept up mourning for her these last five days and we lamented her in
the deepest sorrow for that she was unjustly done to die. This came
from the gratuitous lying of the slave, the blackamoor, and this was
the manner of my killing her. So I conjure thee, by the honor of thine
ancestors, make haste to kill me and do her justice upon me, as
there is no living for me after her!"

The Caliph marveled at his words and said: "By Allah, the young
man is excusable. I will hang none but the accursed slave, and I
will do a deed which shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering,
and which shall please the All-glorious King." Then he turned to
Ja'afar and said to him: "Bring before me this accursed slave who
was the sole cause of this calamity, and if thou bring him not
before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead." So
Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying: "Two deaths have already beset
me, nor shall the crock come off safe from every shock. In this matter
craft and cunning are of no avail, but He who preserved my life the
first time can preserve it a second time. By Allah, I will not leave
my house during the three days of life which remain to me, and let the
Truth (whose perfection be praised!) do e'en as He will." So he kept
his house three days, and on the fourth day he summoned the kazis
and legal witnesses and made his last will and testament, and took
leave of his children weeping.

Presently in came a messenger from the Caliph and said to him:
"The Commander of the Faithful is in the most violent rage that can
be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth that the day shall
certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless the slave be
forthcoming," When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his children and
slaves and all who were in the house wept with him. After he had
bidden adieu to everybody except this youngest daughter, he
proceeded to farewell her, for he loved this wee one, who was a
beautiful child, more than all his other children. And he pressed
her to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly at parting from
her, when he felt something round inside the bosom of her dress and
asked her, "O my little maid, what is in the bosom pocket?" "O my
father," she replied, "it is an apple with the name of our Lord the
Caliph written upon it. Rayhan our slave brought it to me four days
ago, and would not let me have it till I gave him two dinars for
it." When Ja'afar heard speak of the slave and the apple, he was
glad and put his hand into his child's pocket and drew out the apple
and knew it and rejoiced, saying, "O ready Dispeller of trouble!"

Then he bade them bring the slave and said to him, "Fie upon thee,
Rayhan! Whence haddest thou this apple?" "By Allah, O my master," he
replied, "though a he may get a man once off, yet may truth get him
off, and well off, again and again. I did not steal this apple from
thy palace nor from the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful.
The fact is that five days ago, as I was walking along one of the
alleys of this city, I saw some little ones at play and this apple
in hand of one of them. So I snatched it from him and beat him, and he
cried and said, 'O youth, this apple is my mother's and she is ill.
She told my father how she longed for an apple, so he traveled to
Bassorah and bought her three apples for three gold pieces, and I took
one of them to play withal.' He wept again, but I paid no heed to what
he said and carried it off and brought it here, and my little lady
bought it of me for two dinars of gold. And this is the whole story."

When Ja'afar heard his words he marveled that the murder of the
damsel and all this misery should have been caused by his slave. He
grieved for the relation of the slave to himself while rejoicing
over his own deliverance, and he repeated these lines:

   "If ill betide thee through thy slave,
   Make him forthright thy sacrifice.
   A many serviles thou shalt find,
   But life comes once and never twice."

Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph,
related the story from first to last, and the Caliph marveled with
extreme astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back, and
ordered that the story be recorded and be made public amongst the
people.
 But Ja'afar said, "Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this
adventure, for it is not more wondrous than the History of the Wazir
Nur al-Din Ali of Egypt and his brother Shams al-Din Mohammed."
Quoth the Caliph, "Out with it, but what can be stranger than this
story?" And Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will not
tell it thee save on condition that thou pardon my slave." And the
Caliph rejoined, "If it be indeed more wondrous than that of the three
apples, I grant thee his blood, and if not I will surely slay thy
slave." So Ja'afar began in these words the

    TALE OF NUR AL-DIN ALI AND HIS SON BADR AL-DIN HASAN


KNOW, O Commander of the Faithful, that in times of yore the land of
Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity, one
who loved the pious poor and companied with the Ulema and learned men.
And he had a Wazir, a wise and an experienced, well versed in
affairs and in the art of government. This Minister, who was a very
old man, had two sons, as they were two moons. Never man saw the
like of them for beauty and grace- the elder called Shams al-Din
Mohammed and the younger Nur al-Din Ali. But the younger excelled
the elder in seemliness and pleasing semblance, so that folk heard his
fame in far countries and men flocked to Egypt for the purpose of
seeing him.

In course of time their father, the Wazir, died and was deeply
regretted and mourned by the Sultan, who sent for his two sons and,
investing them with dresses of honor, said to them, "Let not your
hearts be troubled, for ye shall stand in your father's stead and be
joint Ministers of Egypt." At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground
before him and performed the ceremonial mourning for their father
during a full month, after which time they entered upon the wazirate
and the power passed into their hands as it had been in the hands of
their father, each doing duty for a week at a time. They lived under
the same roof and their word was one, and whenever the Sultan
desired to travel they took it by turns to be in attendance on him.

It fortuned one night that the Sultan purposed setting out on a
journey next morning, and the elder, whose turn it was to accompany
him, was sitting conversing with his brother and said to him: "O my
brother, it is my wish that we both marry, I and thou, two sisters,
and go in to our wives on one and the same night." "Do, O my
brother, as thou desirest," the younger replied, "for right is thy
recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso thou sayest."
So they agreed upon this, and quoth Shams al-Din: "If Allah decree
that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same night, and
they shall conceive on their bride nights and bear children to us on
the same day, and by Allah's will thy wife bear thee a son and my wife
bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they will
be cousins." Quoth Nur al-Din: "O my brother, Shams al-Din, what dower
wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?" Quoth Shams al-Din:
"I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens and
three farms, and it would not be seemly that the youth make contract
for less than this."

When Nur al-Din heard such demand, he said: "What manner of dower is
this thou wouldest impose upon my son? Wottest thou not that we are
brothers and both by Allah's grace Wazirs and equal in office? It
behooveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son without marriage
settlement, or, if one need be, it should represent a mere nominal
value by way of show to the world. For thou knowest that the masculine
is worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and our memory
will be preserved by him, not by thy daughter." "But what," said Shams
al-Din, "is she to have?" And Nur al-Din continued, "Through her we
shall not be remembered among the emirs of the earth, but I see thou
wouldest do with me according to the saying, 'An thou wouldst bluff of
a buyer, ask him high price and higher,' or as did a man who they
say went to a friend and asked something of him being in necessity and
was answered, 'Bismillah, in the name of Allah, I will do all what
thou requirest, but come tomorrow!' Whereupon the other replied in
this verse:

   'When he who is asked a favor saith "Tomorrow,"
   The wise man wots 'tis vain to beg or borrow.'

Quoth Shams al-Din: "Basta! I see thee fail in respect to me by
making thy son of more account than my daughter, and 'tis plain that
thine understanding is of the meanest and that thou lackest manners.
Thou remindest me of thy partnership in the wazirate, when I
admitted thee to share with me only in pity for thee, and not
wishing to mortify thee, and that thou mightest help me as a manner of
assistant. But since thou talkest on this wise, by Allah, I will never
marry my daughter to thy son- no, not for her weight in gold!" When
Nur al-Din heard his brother's words, he waxed wroth and said: "And I
too, I will never, never marry my son to thy daughter- no, not to keep
from my lips the cup of death." Shams al-Din replied: "I would not
accept him as a husband for her, and he is not worth a paring of her
nail. Were I not about to travel, I would make an example of thee.
However, when I return thou shalt see, and I will show thee, how I can
assert my dignity and vindicate my honor. But Allah doeth whatso He
willeth."

When Nur al-Din heard this speech from his brother, he was filled
with fury and lost his wits for rage, but he hid what he felt and held
his peace; and each of the brothers passed the night in a place far
apart, wild with wrath against the other.

As soon as morning dawned the Sultan fared forth in state and
crossed over from Cairo to Jizah and made for the Pyramids,
accompanied by the Wazir Shams al-Din, whose turn of duty it was,
whilst his brother Nur al-Din, who passed the night in sore rage, rose
with the light and prayed the dawn prayer. Then he betook himself to
his treasury and, taking a small pair of saddlebags, filled them
with gold. And he called to mind his brother's threats and the
contempt wherewith he had treated him, and he repeated these couplets:

 "Travel! And thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind.
 Toil! For the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found.
 The stay-at-home no honor wins, nor aught attains but want,
 So leave thy place of birth and wander all the world around!
 I've seen, and very oft I've seen, how standing water stinks,
 And only flowing sweetens it and trotting makes it sound.
 And were the moon forever full and ne'er to wax or wane,
 Man would not strain his watchful eyes to see its gladsome round.
 Except the lion leave his lair, he ne'er would fell his game,
 Except the arrow leave the bow, ne'er had it reached its bound.
 Gold dust is dust the while it lies untraveled in the mine,
 And aloes wood mere fuel is upon its native ground.
 And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoaled,
 And aloes sent to foreign parts grows costlier than gold."

When he ended his verse, he bade one of his pages saddle him his
Nubian mare mule with her padded selle. Now she was a dapple-gray,
with ears like reed pens and legs like columns and a back high and
strong as a dome builded on pillars. Her saddle was of gold cloth
and her stirrups of Indian steel, and her housing of Ispahan velvet.
She had trappings which would serve the Chosroes, and she was like a
bride adorned for her wedding night. Moreover, he bade lay on her back
a piece of silk for a seat, and a prayer carpet under which were his
saddlebags. When this was done, he said to his pages and slaves: "I
purpose going forth a-pleasuring outside the city on the road to
Kalyub town, and I shall be three nights abroad, so let none of you
follow me, for there is something straiteneth my breast." Then he
mounted the mule in haste and, taking with him some provaunt for the
way, set out from Cairo and faced the open and uncultivated country
lying around it.

About noontide he entered Bilbays city, where he dismounted and
stayed awhile to rest himself and his mule and ate some of his
victual. He bought at Bilbays all he wanted for himself and forage for
his mule and then fared on the way of the waste. Toward nightfall he
entered a town called Sa'adiyah, where he alighted and took out
somewhat of his viaticum and ate. Then he spread his strip of silk
on the sand and set the saddlebags under his head and slept in the
open air, for he was still overcome with anger. When morning dawned he
mounted and rode onward till he reached the Holy City, Jerusalem,
and thence he made Aleppo, where he dismounted at one of the
caravanserais and abode three days to rest himself and the mule and to
smell the air. Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah
having written safety in his fate, he set out again, mending without
wotting whither he was going. And having fallen in with certain
couriers, he stinted not traveling till he had reached Bassorah
city, albeit he knew not what the place was.

It was dark night when he alighted at the khan, so he spread out his
prayer carpet and took down the saddlebags from the back of the mule
and gave her with her furniture in charge of the doorkeeper that he
might walk her about. The man took her and did as he was bid. Now it
so happened that the Wazir of Bassorah, a man shot in years, was
sitting at the lattice window of his palace opposite the khan and he
saw the porter walking the mule up and down. He was struck by her
trappings of price, and thought her a nice beast fit for the riding of
wazirs or even of royalties, and the more he looked, the more was he
perplexed, till at last he said to one of his pages, "Bring hither yon
doorkeeper." The page went and returned to the Wazir with the
porter, who kissed the ground between his hands, and the Minister
asked him, "Who is the owner of yonder mule, and what manner of man is
he?" and he answered, "O my lord, the owner of this mule is a comely
young man of pleasant manners, withal grave and dignified, and
doubtless one of the sons of the merchants."

When the Wazir heard the doorkeeper's words he arose forthright and,
mounting his horse, rode to the khan and went in to Nur al-Din, who,
seeing the Minister making toward him, rose to his feet and advanced
to meet him and saluted him. The Wazir welcomed him to Bassorah and
dismounting, embraced him and made him sit down by his side, and said,
"O my son, whence comest thou, and what dost thou seek?" "O my
lord," Nur al-Din replied, "I have come from Cairo city, of which my
father was whilom Wazir, but he hath been removed to the grace of
Allah." And he informed him of all that had befallen him from
beginning to end, adding, "I am resolved never to return home before I
have seen all the cities and countries of the world." When the Wazir
heard this, he said to him: "O my son, hearken not to the voice of
passion lest it cast thee into the pit, for indeed many regions be
waste places, and I fear for thee the turns of Time." Then he let load
the saddlebags and the silk and prayer carpets on the mule and carried
Nur al-Din to his own house, where he lodged him in a pleasant place
and entreated him honorably and made much of him, for he inclined to
love him with exceeding love.

After a while he said to him: "O my son, here am I left a man in
years and have no male children, but Allah hath blessed me with a
daughter who eveneth thee in beauty, and I have rejected all her
many suitors, men of rank and substance. But affection for thee hath
entered into my heart. Say me, then, wilt thou be to her a husband? If
thou accept this, I will go with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah and
will tell him that thou art my nephew, the son of my brother, and
bring thee to be appointed Wazir in my place that I may keep the
house, for, by Allah, O my son, I am stricken in years and aweary."
When Nur al-Din heard the Wazir's words, he bowed his head in
modesty and said, "To hear is to obey!" At this the Wazir rejoiced and
bade his servants prepare a feast and decorate the great assembly hall
wherein they were wont to celebrate the marriages of emirs and
grandees. Then he assembled his friends and the notables of the
reign and the merchants of Bassorah, and when all stood before him
he said to them: "I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of
Egypt, and Allah Almighty blessed him with two sons, whilst to me,
as well ye wot, He hath given a daughter. My brother charged me to
marry my daughter to one of his sons, whereto I assented, and when
my daughter was of age to marry, he sent me one of his sons, the young
man now present, to whom I purpose marrying her, drawing up the
contract and celebrating the night of unveiling with due ceremony. For
he is nearer and dearer to me than a stranger, and after the
wedding, if he please he shall abide with me, or if he desire to
travel, I will forward him and his wife to his father's home."
Hereat one and all replied, "Right is thy recking," and they looked at
the bridegroom and were pleased with him.

So the Wazir sent for the kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote
out the marriage contract, after which the slaves perfumed the
guests with incense, and served them with sherbet of sugar and
sprinkled rose-water on them, and all went their ways. Then the
Wazir bade his servants take Nur al-Din to the hammam baths and sent
him a suit of the best of his own especial raiment, and napkins and
towelry and bowls and perfume-burners and all else that was
required. And after the bath, when he came out and donned the dress,
he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth night, and he mounted
his mule and stayed not till he reached the Wazir's palace. There he
dismounted and went in to the Minister and kissed his hands, and the
Wazir bade him welcome, saying: "Arise and go in to thy wife this
night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray
Allah bless thee with all manner of weal." So Nur al-Din left him
and went in to his wife the Wazir's daughter.

Thus far concerning him, but as regards his elder brother, Shams
al-Din, he was absent with the Sultan a long time, and when he
returned from his journey he found not his brother, and he asked of
his servants and slaves, who answered: "On the day of thy departure
with the Sultan, thy brother mounted his mule fully caparisoned as for
state procession saying, 'I am going towards Kalyub town, and I
shall be absent one day or at most two days, for my breast is
straitened, and let none of you follow me.' Then he fared forth, and
from that time to this we have heard no tidings of him." Shams
al-Din was greatly troubled at the sudden disappearance of his brother
and grieved with exceeding grief at the loss, and said to himself:
"This is only because I chided and upbraided him the night before my
departure with the Sultan. Haply his feelings were hurt, and he
fared forth a-traveling, but I must send after him." Then he went in
to the Sultan and acquainted him with what had happened and wrote
letters and dispatches, which he sent by running footmen to his
deputies in every province. But during the twenty days of his
brother's absence Nur al-Din had traveled far and had reached
Bassorah, so after diligent search the messengers failed to come at
any news of him and returned. Thereupon Shams al-Din despaired of
finding his brother and said: "Indeed I went beyond all bounds in what
I said to him with reference to the marriage of our children. Would
that I had not done so! This all cometh of my lack of wit and want
of caution."

Soon after this he sought in marriage the daughter of a Cairene
merchant, and drew up the marriage contract, and went in to her. And
it so chanced that on the very same night when Shams al-Din went in to
his wife, Nur al-Din also went in to his wife, the daughter of the
Wazir of Bassorah, this being in accordance with the will of
Almighty Allah, that He might deal the decrees of Destiny to His
creatures. Furthermore, it was as the two brothers had said, for their
two wives became pregnant by them on the same night and both were
brought to bed on the same day, the wife of Shams al-Din, Wazir of
Egypt, of a daughter, never in Cairo was seen a fairer, and the wife
of Nur al-Din of a son, none more beautiful was ever seen in his time,
as one of the poets said concerning the like of him:

   That jetty hair, that glossy brow,
       My slender waisted youth, of thine,
   Can darkness round creation throw,
       Or make it brightly shine.
   The dusky mole that faintly shows
       Upon his cheek, ah! blame it not.
   The tulip flower never blows
       Undarkened by its spot.

They named the boy Badr al-Din Hasan and his grandfather, the
Wazir of Bassorah, rejoiced in him, and on the seventh day after his
birth made entertainments and spread banquets which would befit the
birth of kings' sons and heirs. Then he took Nur al-Din and went up
with him to the Sultan, and his son-in-law, when he came before the
presence of the King, kissed the ground between his hands and repeated
these verses, for he was ready of speech, firm of sprite and good in
heart, as he was goodly in form:

   "The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord!
   And last while darkness and the dawn o'erlap.
   O thou who makest, when we greet thy gifts,
   The world to dance and Time his palms to clap."

Then the Sultan rose up to honor them and, thanking Nur al-Din for
his fine compliment, asked the Wazir, "Who may be this young man?" And
the Minister answered, "This is my brother's son," and related his
tale from first to last. Quoth the Sultan, "And how comes he to be thy
nephew and we have never heard speak of him?" Quoth the Minister: "O
our lord the Sultan, I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of
Egypt and he died, leaving two sons, whereof the elder hath taken
his father's place and the younger, whom thou seest, came to me. I had
sworn I would not marry my daughter to any but him, so when he came
I married him to her. Now he is young and I am old, my hearing is
dulled and my judgment is easily fooled, wherefore I would solicit our
lord the Sultan to set him in my stead, for he is my brother's son and
my daughter's husband, and he is fit for the wazirate, being a man
of good counsel and ready contrivance."

The Sultan looked at Nur al-Din and liked him, so he stablished
him in office as the Wazir had requested and formally appointed him,
presenting him with a splendid dress of honor and a she-mule from
his private stud, and assigning to him solde, stipends, and
supplies. Nur al-Din kissed the Sultan's hand and went home, he and
his father-in-law, joying with exceeding joy and saying, "All this
followeth on the heels of the boy Hasan's birth!" Next day he
presented himself before the King and, kissing the ground, began
repeating:

 "Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day,
 And thy luck prevail o'er the envier's spite,
 And ne'er cease thy days to be white as day,
 And thy foeman's day to be black as night!"

The Sultan bade him be seated on the Wazir's seat, so he sat down
and applied himself to the business of his office and went into the
cases of the lieges and their suits, as is the wont of Ministers,
while the Sultan watched him and wondered at his wit and good sense,
judgment and insight. Wherefor he loved him and took him into
intimacy. When the Divan was dismissed, Nur al-Din returned to his
house and related what had passed to his father-in-law, who
rejoiced. And thenceforward Nur al-Din ceased not so to administer the
wazirate that the Sultan would not be parted from him night or day,
and increased his stipends and supplies till his means were ample
and he became the owner of ships that made trading voyages at his
command, as well as of Mamelukes and blackamoor slaves. And he laid
out many estates and set up Persian wheels and planted gardens.

When his son Hasan was four years of age, the old Wazir deceased,
and he made for his father-in-law a sumptuous funeral ceremony ere
he was laid in the dust. Then he occupied himself with the education
of this son, and when the boy waxed strong and came to the age of
seven, he brought him a fakir, a doctor of law and religion, to
teach him in his own house, and charged him to give him a good
education and instruct him in politeness and good manners. So the
tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties of useful
knowledge, after he had spent some years in learning the Koran by
heart, and he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature and symmetry.
The professor brought him up in his father's palace, teaching him
reading, writing and ciphering, theology, and belles lettres. His
grandfather, the old Wazir, had bequeathed to him the whole of his
property when he was but four years of age.

Now during all the time of his earliest youth he had never left
the house till on a certain day his father, the Wazir Nur al-Din, clad
him in his best clothes and, mounting him on a she-mule of the finest,
went up with him to the Sultan. The King gazed at Badr al-Din Hasan
and marveled at his comeliness and loved him. As for the city folk,
when he first passed before them with his father, they marveled at his
exceeding beauty and sat down on the road expecting his return, that
they might look their fill on his beauty and loveliness and symmetry
and perfect grace. And they blessed him aloud as he passed and
called upon Almighty Allah to bless him. The Sultan entreated the
lad with especial favor and said to his father, "O Wazir, thou must
needs bring him daily to my presence." Whereupon he replied, "I hear
and I obey."

Then the Wazir returned home with his son and ceased not to carry
him to court till he reached the age of twenty. At that time the
Minister sickened and, sending for Badr al-Din Hasan, said to him:
"Know, O my son, that the world of the present is but a house of
mortality, while that the future is a house of eternity. I wish,
before I die, to bequeath thee certain charges, and do thou take
heed of what I say and incline thy heart to my words." Then he gave
him his last instructions as to the properest way of dealing with
his neighbors and the due management of his affairs, after which he
called to mind his brother and his home and his native land and wept
over his separation from those he had first loved.

Then he wiped away his tears and, turning to his son, said to him:
"Before I proceed, O my son, to my last charges and injunctions,
know that I have a brother, and thou hast an uncle, Shams al-Din
hight, the Wazir of Cairo, with whom I parted, leaving him against his
will. Now take thee a sheet of paper and write upon it whatso I say to
thee." Badr al-Din took a fair leaf and set about doing his father's
bidding, and he wrote thereon a full account of what had happened to
his sire first and last: the dates of his arrival at Bassorah and of
his forgathering with the Wazir, of his marriage, of his going in to
the Minister's daughter, and of the birth of his son- brief, his life
of forty years from the day of his dispute with his brother, adding
the words: "And this is written at my dictation, and may Almighty
Allah be with him when I am gone!" Then he folded the paper and sealed
it and said: "O Hasan, O my son, keep this paper with all care, for it
will enable thee to establish thine origin and rank and lineage, and
if anything contrary befall thee, set out for Cairo and ask for
thine uncle and show him this paper, and say to him that I died a
stranger far from mine own people and full of yearning to see him
and them." So Badr al-Din Hasan took the document and folded it and,
wrapping it up in a piece of waxed cloth, sewed it like a talisman
between the inner and outer cloth of his skullcap and wound his
light turban round it. And he fell to weeping over his father and at
parting with him, and he but a boy.

Then Nur al-Din lapsed into a swoon, the forerunner of death, but
presently recovering himself, he said: "O Hasan, O my son, I will
now bequeath to thee five last behests. The FIRST BEHEST is: Be
overintimate with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any. So
shalt thou be safe from his mischief, for security lieth in
seclusion of thought and a certain retirement from the society of
thy fellows, and I have heard it said by a poet:

   "In this world there is none thou mayst count upon
   To befriend thy case in the nick of need.
   So live for thyself nursing hope of none.
   Such counsel I give thee-enow, take heed!

"The SECOND BEHEST is, O my son: Deal harshly with none lest fortune
with thee deal hardly, for the fortune of this world is one day with
thee and another day against thee, and all worldly goods are but a
loan to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say:

   "Take thought nor haste to will the thing thou wilt,
   Have ruth on man, for ruth thou mayst require.
   No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher,
   No tyrant but shall rue worse tyrant's ire!

"The THIRD BEHEST is: Learn to be silent in society and let thine
own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men,
for it is said, 'In silence dwelleth safety,' and thereon I have heard
the lines that tell us:

   "Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is.
   Whenas thou speakest, many a word withhold,
   For an of Silence thou repent thee once,
   Of speech thou shalt repent times manifold.

"The FOURTH BEHEST, O My son, is: Beware of winebibbing, for wine is
the head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun,
and again I say shun, mixing strong liquor, for I have heard a poet
say:

   "From wine I turn and whoso wine cups swill,
   Becoming one of those who deem it ill.
   Wine driveth man to miss salvation way,
   And opes the gateway wide to sins that kill.

"The FIFTH BEHEST, O My Son, is: Keep thy wealth and it will keep
thee, guard thy money and it will guard thee, and waste not thy
substance lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from
the meanest of mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the
sovereignest salve for the wounds of the world. And here again I
have heard that one of the poets said:

   "When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend.
   When wealth abounds all friends their friendship tender.
   How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend,
   But friends to lack of wealth no friendship render."

On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din
Hasan till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life
went forth. Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his
house and the Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried
him. But his son ceased not lamenting his loss for two months,
during which he never mounted horse, nor attended the Divan, nor
presented himself before the Sultan. At last the King, being wroth
with him, stablished in his stead one of his chamberlains and made him
Wazir, giving orders to seize and set seals on all Nur al-Din's houses
and goods and domains. So the new Wazir went forth with a mighty posse
of chamberlains and people of the Divan, and watchmen and a host of
idlers, to do this and to seize Badr al-Din Hasan and carry him before
the King, who would deal with him as he deemed fit.

Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of the
deceased Wazir who, when he had heard this order, urged his horse
and rode at full speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan, for he could
not endure to see the ruin of his old master's son. He found him
sitting at the gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his
wont, for the loss of his father, so he dismounted and, kissing his
hand, said to him, "O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin
come and lay waste!" When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked,
"What may be the matter?" and the man answered: "The Sultan is angered
with thee and hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard
upon my track, so flee with thy life!" At these words Hasan's heart
flamed with the fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek turned pale,
and he said to the Mameluke: "O my brother, is there time for me to go
in and get some worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my
strangerhood?" But the slave replied, "O my lord, up at once and
save thyself and leave this house while it is yet time." And he quoted
these lines:

   "Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee,
   And let the house tell of its builder's fate!
   Country for country thou'lt find, if thou seek it,
   Life for life never, early or late.
   It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection
   When the plain of God's earth is so wide and so great!"

At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with
the skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood
outside of the city, where he heard folk saying: "The Sultan hath sent
his new Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal
his property and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before
the presence, that he may put him to death." And all cried, "Alas
for his beauty and his loveliness!" When he heard this, he fled
forth at hazard, knowing not whither he was going, and gave not over
hurrying onward till Destiny drove him to his father's tomb. So he
entered the cemetery and, threading his way through the graves, at
last he reached the sepulcher, where he sat down and let fall from his
head the skirt of his long robe, which was made of brocade with a
gold-embroidered hem whereon were worked these couplets:

   O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East,
   Tells of the stars of Heaven and bounteous dews,
   Endure thine honor to the latest day,
   And Time thy growth of glory ne'er refuse!

While he was sitting by his father's tomb, behold, there came to him
a Jew as he were a shroff, a money-changer, with a pair of
saddlebags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand,
saying: "Whither bound, O my lord? 'Tis late in the day, and thou
art clad but lightly, and I read signs of trouble in thy face." "I was
sleeping within this very hour," answered Hasan, "when my father
appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb. So I awoke
trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without
my visiting him, which would have been grievous to me." "O my lord,"
rejoined the Jew, "thy father had many merchantmen at sea, and as some
of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the
first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold."
"I concent," quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full of
gold and counted out a thousand sequins, which he gave to Hasan, the
son of the Wazir, saying, "Write me a letter of sale and seal it."

So Hasan took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate:
"The writer, Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold
to Isaac the Jew all the cargo of the first of his father's ships
which cometh into port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received
the price in advance." And after he had taken one copy, the Jew put it
into his pouch and went away, but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought
of the dignity and prosperity which had erst been his and night came
upon him. So he leant his head against his father's gave and sleep
overcame him- glory to Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering
till the moon rose, when his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay
on his back, with limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in the
moonlight. Now the cemetery was haunted day and night by Jinns who
were of the True Believers, and presently came out a Jinniyah who,
seeing Hasan asleep, marveled at his beauty and loveliness and
cried: "Glory to God! This youth can be none other than one of the
Wuldan of Paradise." Then she flew firmamentward to circle it, as
was her custom, and met an Ifrit on the wing, who saluted her, and
said to him, "Whence comest thou?" "From Cairo," he replied. "Wilt
thou come with me and look upon the beauty of a youth who sleepeth
in yonder burial place?" she asked, and he answered, "I will."

So they flew till they lighted at the tomb and she showed him the
youth and said, "Now diddest thou ever in thy born days see aught like
this?" The Ifrit looked upon him and exclaimed: "Praise be to Him that
hath no equal! But, O my sister, shall I tell thee what I have seen
this day?" Asked she, "What is that?" and he answered: "I have seen
the counterpart of this youth in the land of Egypt. She is the
daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and she is a model of beauty and
loveliness, of fairest favor and formous form, and dight with symmetry
and perfect grace. When she had reached the age of nineteen, the
Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending for the Wazir her father,
said to him, `Hear me, O Wazir. It hath reached mine ear that thou
hast a daughter, and I wish to demand her of thee in marriage.' The
Wazir replied:

"`O our lord the Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion
on my sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner
with me in the wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago
and we wot not where he is. Now the cause of his departure was that
one night, as we were sitting together and talking of wives and
children to come, we had words on the matter and he went off in high
dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my daughter to none save to
the son of my brother on the day her mother gave her birth, which
was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately heard that my
brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the daughter of the
Wazir and that she bare him a son, and I will not marry my daughter
but to him in honor of my brother's memory. I recorded the date of
my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my
daughter, and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined
with that of her cousin, and there are damsels in foison for our
lord the Sultan.'

"The King, hearing his Minister's answer and refusal, waxed wroth
with exceeding wrath and cried: 'When the like of me asketh a girl
in marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honor, and thou
rejectest me and puttest me off with cold excuses! Now, by the life of
my head, I will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of the
nose of thee!' There was in the palace a horse groom which was a Gobbo
with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back, and the Sultan
sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or
loth, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and
that he go in to his bride this very night. I have not just flown
hither from Cairo, where I left the hunchback at the door of the
hammam bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves, who were waving
lighted flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's daughter, she
sitteth among her nurses and tirewomen, weeping and wailing, for
they have forbidden her father to come near her. Never have I seen,
O my sister, more hideous being than this hunchback, whilst the
young lady is the likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even
fairer than he."

At this the Jinniyah cried at him: "Thou liest! This youth is
handsomer than anyone of his day." The Ifrit gave her the he again,
adding: "By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer than
this. Yet none but he deserveth her, for they resemble each other like
brother and sister, or at least cousins. And, wellaway, how she is
wasted upon that hunchback!" Then said she, "O my brother, let us
get under him and lift him up and carry him to Cairo, that we may
compare him with the damsel of whom thou speakest and so determine
whether of the twain is the fairer." "To hear is to obey!" replied he.
"Thou speakest to the point, nor is there a righter recking than
this of thine, and I myself will carry him." So he raised him from the
ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in upper air, the Ifritah
keeping close by his side at equal speed, till be alighted with him in
the city of Cairo and set him down on a stone bench and woke him up.
He roused himself and finding that he was no longer at his father's
tomb in Bassorah city, he looked right and left and saw that he was in
a strange place, and he would have cried out, but the Ifrit gave him a
cuff which persuaded him to keep silence. Then he brought him rich
raiment and clothed him therein and, giving him a lighted flambeau,
said:

"Know that I have brought thee hither meaning to do thee a good turn
for the love of Allah. So take this torch and mingle with the people
at the hammam door and walk on with them without stopping till thou
reach the house of the wedding festival. Then go boldly forward and
enter the great saloon, and fear none, but take thy stand at the right
hand of the hunchback bridegroom. And as often as any of the nurses
and tirewomen and singing girls come up to thee, put thy hand into thy
pocket, which thou wilt find filled with gold. Take it out and throw
to them and spare not, for as often as thou thrustest fingers in
pouch, thou shalt find it full of coin. Give largess by handfuls and
fear nothing, but set thy trust upon Him who created thee, for this is
not by thine own strength but by that of Allah Almighty, that His
decrees may take effect upon His creatures."

When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words from the Ifrit, he said
to himself, "Would Heaven I knew what all this means and what is the
cause of such kindness!" However, he mingled with the people and,
lighting his flambeau, moved on with the bridal procession till he
came to the bath, where he found the hunchback already on horseback.
Then he pushed his way in among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man
in the finest apparel, wearing tarboosh and turban and a
long-sleeved robe purfled with gold. And as often as the singing women
stopped for the people to give him largess, he thrust his hand into
his pocket and, finding it full of gold, took out a handful and
threw it on the tambourine till he had filled it with gold pieces for
the music girls and the tirewomen. The singers were amazed by his
bounty and the people marveled at his beauty and loveliness and the
splendor of his dress. He ceased not to do thus till he reached the
mansion of the Wazir (who was his uncle), where the chamberlains drove
back the people and forbade them to go forward, but the singing
girls and the tirewomen said, "By Allah, we will not enter unless this
young man enter with us, for he hath given us length o' life with
his largess, and we will not display the bride unless he be present."

Therewith they carried him into the bridal hall and made him sit
down, defying the evil glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The
wives of the emirs and wazirs and chamberlains and courtiers all stood
in double line, each holding a massy cierge ready lighted. All wore
thin face veils, and the two rows right and left extended from the
bride's throne to the head of the hall adjoining the chamber whence
she was to come forth. When the ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and noted
his beauty and loveliness and his face that shone like the new moon,
their hearts inclined to him and the singing girls said to all that
were present, "Know that this beauty crossed our hands with naught but
red gold, so be not chary to do him womanly service and comply with
all he says, no matter what he ask." So all the women crowded round
Hasan with their torches and gazed on his loveliness and envied him
his beauty, and one and all would gladly have lain on his bosom an
hour, or rather a year. Their hearts were so troubled that they let
fall their veils from before their faces and said, "Happy she who
belongeth to this youth or to whom he belongeth!" And they called down
curses on the crooked groom and on him who was the cause of his
marriage to the girl beauty, and as often as they blessed Badr
al-Din Hasan they damned the hunchback, saying, "Verily this youth and
none else deserveth our bride. Ah, wellaway for such a lovely one with
this hideous Quasimodo! Allah's curse light on his head and on the
Sultan who commanded the marriage!"

Then the singing girls beat their tabrets and lullilooed with joy,
announcing the appearing of the bride, and the Wazir's daughter came
in surrounded by her tirewomen, who had made her goodly to look
upon. For they had perfumed her and incensed her and adorned her hair,
and they had robed her in raiment and ornaments befitting the mighty
Chosroes kings. The most notable part of her dress was a loose robe
worn over her other garments. It was diapered in red gold with figures
of wild beasts, and birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems and
claws of red rubies and green beryl. And her neck was graced with a
necklace of Yamani work, worth thousands of gold pieces, whose
bezels were great round jewels of sorts, the like of which was never
owned by Kaysar or by Tobba king. And the bride was as the full moon
when at fullest on fourteenth night, and as she paced into the hall
she was like one of the houris of Heaven- praise be to Him who
created her in such splendor of beauty! The ladies encompassed her
as the white contains the black of the eye, they clustering like stars
whilst she shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up the
clouds.

Now Badr al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in full gaze of the
folk when the bride came forward with her graceful swaying and
swimming gait, and her hunchbacked bridegroom stood up to meet and
receive her. She, however, turned away from the wight and walked
forward till she stood before her cousin Hasan, the son of her
uncle. Whereat the people laughed. But when the wedding guests saw her
thus attracted toward Badr al-Din, they made a mighty clamor and the
singing women shouted their loudest. Whereupon he put his hand into
his pocket and, pulling out a handful of gold, cast it into their
tambourines, and the girls rejoiced and said, "Could we will our wish,
this bride were thine!" At this he smiled and the folk came round him,
flambeaux in hand, like the eyeball round the pupil, while the Gobbo
bridegroom was left sitting alone much like a tailless baboon. For
every time they lighted a candle for him it went out willy-nilly, so
he was left in darkness and silence and looking at naught but himself.

When Badr al-Din Hasan saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the
dark, and all the wedding guests with their flambeaux and wax
candles crowding about himself, he was bewildered and marveled much,
but when he looked at his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he
rejoiced and felt an inward delight. He longed to greet her, and gazed
intently on her face, which was radiant with light and brilliancy.
Then the tirewomen took off her veil and displayed her in all her
seven toilettes before Badr al-Din Hasan, wholly neglecting the Gobbo,
who sat moping alone, and when she opened her eyes, she said, "O
Allah, make this man my goodman and deliver me from the evil of this
hunchbacked groom." As soon as they had made an end of this part of
the ceremony they dismissed the wedding guests, who went forth, women,
children and all, and none remained save Hasan and the hunchback,
whilst the tirewomen led the bride into an inner room to change her
garb and gear and get her ready for the bridegroom.

Thereupon Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din Hasan and said: "O my
lord, thou hast cheered us this night with thy good company and
overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy, but now why not get
thee up and go?" "Bismillah," he answered. "In Allah's name, so be
it!" And rising, he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met him
and said, "Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the hunchback
goes out to the closet of ease, go in without losing time and seat
thyself in the alcove, and when the bride comes say to her: ''Tis I am
thy husband, for the King devised this trick only fearing for thee the
evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a syce, a groom, one of our
stablemen.' Then walk boldly up to her and unveil her face, for
jealousy hath taken us of this matter."

While Hasan was still talking with the Ifrit, behold, the groom
fared forth from the hall and entering the closet of ease, sat down on
the stool. Hardly had he done this when the Ifrit came out of the
tank, wherein the water was, in semblance of a mouse and squeaked
out "Zeek!" Quoth the hunchback, "What ails thee?" And the mouse
grew and grew till it became a coal-black cat and caterwauled "Miaowl!
Miaow!" Then it grew still more and more till it became a dog and
barked out, "Owh! Owh!" When the bridegroom saw this, he was
frightened and exclaimed "Out with thee, O unlucky one!" But the dog
grew and swelled till it became an ass colt that brayed and snorted in
his face, "Hauk! Hauk!" Whereupon the hunchback quaked and cried,
"Come to my aid, O people of the house!" But behold, the ass colt grew
and became big as a buffalo and walled the way before him and spake
with the voice of the sons of Adam, saying, "Woe to thee, O thou
hunchback, thou stinkard, O thou filthiest of grooms!"

Hearing this, the groom was seized with a colic and he sat down on
the jakes in his clothes with teeth chattering and knocking
together. Quoth the Ifrit, "Is the world so strait to thee thou
findest none to marry save my ladylove?" But as he was silent the
Ifrit continued, "Answer me or I will do thee dwell in the dust!"
"By Allah," replied the Gobbo, "O King of the Buffaloes, this is no
fault of mine, for they forced me to wed her, and verily I wot not
that she had a lover amongst the buffaloes. But now I repent, first
before Allah and then before thee." Said the Ifrit to him: "I swear to
thee that if thou fare forth from this place, or thou utter a word
before sunrise, I assuredly will wring thy neck. When the sun rises,
wend thy went and never more return to this house." So saying, the
Ifrit took up the Gobbo bridegroom and set him head downward and
feet upward in the slit of the privy, and said to him: "I will leave
thee here, but I shall be on the lookout for thee till sunrise, and if
thou stir before then, I will seize thee by the feet and dash out
thy brains against the wall. So look out for thy life!"

Thus far concerning the hunchback, but as regards Badr al-Din
Hasan of Bassorah, he left the Gobbo and the Ifrit jangling and
wrangling and, going into the house, sat him down in the very middle
of the alcove. And behold, in came the bride attended by an old woman,
who stood at the door and said, "O Father of Uprightness, arise and
take what God giveth thee." Then the old woman went away and the
bride, Sitt al-Husn or the Lady of Beauty hight, entered the inner
part of the alcove brokenhearted and saying in herself, "By Allah, I
will never yield my person to him- no, not even were he to take my
life!"

But as she came to the further end she saw Badr al-Hasan and she
said, "Dearling! Art thou still sitting here? By Allah, I was
wishing that thou wert my bridegroom, or at least that thou and the
hunchbacked horsegroom were partners in me." He replied, "O
beautiful lady, how should the syce have access to thee, and how
should he share in thee with me?" "Then," quoth she, "who is my
husband, thou or he?" "Sitt al-Husn," rejoined Hasan, "we have not
done this for mere fun, but only as a device to ward off the evil
eye from thee. For when the tirewomen and singers and wedding guests
saw thy beauty being displayed to me, they feared fascination, and thy
father hired the horsegroom for ten dinars and a porringer of meat
to take the evil eye off us, and now he hath received his hire and
gone his gait."

When the Lady of Beauty heard these words she smiled and rejoiced
and laughed a pleasant laugh. Then she whispered him: "By the Lord,
thou hast quenched a fire which tortured me and now, by Allah, O my
little dark-haired darling, take me to thee and press me to thy
bosom!" Then she began singing:

   "By Allah, set thy foot upon my soul,
   Since long, long years for this alone I long.
   And whisper tale of love in ear of me,
   To me 'tis sweeter than the sweetest song!
   No other youth upon my heart shall lie,
   So do it often, dear, and do it long."

Then she stripped off her outer gear and she threw open her
chemise from the neck downward and showed her person and all the
rondure of her hips. When Badr al-Din saw the glorious sight, his
desires were roused, and he arose and doffed his clothes, and wrapping
up in his bam, trousers the purse of gold which he had taken from
the Jew and which contained the thousand dinars, he laid it under
the edge of the bedding. Then he took off his turban and set it upon
the settle atop of his other clothes, remaining in his skullcap and
fine shirt of blue silk laced with gold. Whereupon the Lady of
Beauty drew him to her and he did likewise. Then he took her to his
embrace and found her a pearl unpierced, and he abaged her virginity
and had joyance of her youth in his virility; and she conceived by him
that very night. Then he laid his hand under her head and she did
the same and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's arms, as
a certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets:

   Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told,
   No envious churl shall smile on love ensouled.
   Merciful Allah made no fairer sight
   Than coupled lovers single couch doth hold,
   Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own,
   With pillowed forearms cast in finest mold.
   And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of love,
   Folk who would part them hammer steel ice-cold.
   If a fair friend thou find who cleaves to thee,
   Live for that friend, that friend in heart enfold.
   O ye who blame for love us lover-kind,
   Say, can ye minister to diseased mind?

This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al-Husn his
cousin, but as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain
asleep, he said to the Ifritah: "Arise, slip thee under the youth, and
let us carry him back to his place ere dawn overtake us, for the day
is near-hand." Thereupon she came forward and getting under him as
he lay asleep, took him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, leaving
the rest of his garments, and ceased not flying (and the Ifrit vying
with her in flight) till the dawn advised them that it had come upon
them midway, and the muezzin began his call from the minaret: "Haste
ye to salvation! Haste ye to salvation!" Then Allah suffered His
angelic host to shoot down the Ifrit with a shooting star, so he was
consumed, but the Ifritah escaped, and she descended with Badr
al-Din at the place where the Ifrit was burnt, and did not carry him
back to Bassorah, fearing lest he come to harm.

Now by the order of Him who predestineth all things, they alighted
at Damascus of Syria, and the Ifritah set down her burden at one of
the city gates and flew away. When day arose and the doors were
opened, the folk who came forth saw a handsome youth, with no other
raiment but his blue shirt of gold-embroidered silk and skullcap,
lying upon the ground drowned in sleep after the hard labor of the
night, which had not suffered him to take his rest. So the folk,
looking at him, said: "Oh, her luck with whom this one spent the
night! But would he had waited to don his garments!" Quoth another: "A
sorry lot are the sons of great families! Haply he but now came
forth of the tavern on some occasion of his own and his wine flew to
his head, whereby he hath missed the place he was making for and
strayed till he came to the gate of the city, and finding it shut, lay
him down and went to by-by!"

As the people were bandying guesses about him, suddenly the
morning breeze blew upon Badr al-Din and raising his shirt to his
middle, showed a stomach and navel with something below it, and legs
and thighs clear as crystal and smooth as cream. Cried the people, "By
Allah, he is a pretty fellow!" and at the cry Badr al-Din awoke and
found himself lying at a city gate with a crowd gathered around him.
At this he greatly marveled and asked: "Where am I, O good folk, and
what causeth you thus to gather round me, and what have I had to do
with you?" and they answered: "We found thee lying here asleep
during the call to dawn prayer, and this is all we know of the matter.
But where diddest thou lie last night?" "By Allah, O good people,"
replied he, "I lay last night in Cairo." Said somebody, "Thou hast
surely been eating hashish," and another, "He is a fool," and a third,
"He is a citrouille," and a fourth asked him: "Art thou out of thy
mind? Thou sleepest in Cairo and thou wakest in the morning at the
gate of Damascus city!" Cried he: "By Allah, my good people, one and
all, I lie not to you. Indeed I lay yesternight in the land of Egypt
and yesternoon I was at Bassorah." Quoth one, "Well! well!" and
quoth another, "Ho! ho!" and a third, "So! so!" and a fourth cried,
"This youth is mad, is possessed of the Jinni!" So they clapped
hands at him and said to one another: "Alas, the pity of it for his
youthl By Allah, a madman! And madness is no respecter of persons."

Then said they to him: "Collect thy wits and return to thy reason!
How couldest thou be in Bassorah yesterday and in Cairo yesternight
and withal awake in Damascus this morning?" But he persisted,
"Indeed I was a bridegroom in Cairo last night." "Belike thou hast
been dreaming," rejoined they, "and sawest all this in thy sleep."
So Hasan took thought for a while and said to them: "By Allah, this is
no dream, nor visionlike doth it seem! I certainly was in Cairo, where
they displayed the bride before me, in presence of a third person, the
hunchback groom, who was sitting hard by. By Allah, O my brother, this
be no dream, and if it were a dream, where is the bag of gold I bore
with me, and where are my turban and my robe, and my trousers?"

Then he rose and entered the city, threading its highways and byways
and bazaar streets, and the people pressed upon him and jeered at him,
crying out "Madman! Madman!" till he, beside himself with rage, took
refuge in a cook's shop. Now that cook had been a trifle too
clever- that is, a rogue and thief- but Allah had made him repent and
turn from his evil ways and open a cookshop, and all the people of
Damascus stood in fear of his boldness and his mischief. So when the
crowd saw the youth enter his shop, they dispersed, being afraid of
him, and went their ways. The cook looked at Badr al-Din and, noting
his beauty and loveliness, fell in love with him forthright and
said: "Whence comest thou, O youth? Tell me at once thy tale, for thou
art become dearer to me than my soul." So Hasan recounted to him all
that had befallen him from beginning to end (but in repetition there
is no fruition) and the cook said: "O my lord Badr al-Din, doubtless
thou knowest that this case is wondrous and this story marvelous.
Therefore, O my son, hide what hath betide thee, till Allah dispel
what ills be thine, and tarry with me here the meanwhile, for I have
no child and I will adopt thee." Badr al-Din replied, "Be it as thou
wilt, O my uncle!" Whereupon the cook went to the bazaar and bought
him a fine suit of clothes and made him don it, then fared with him to
the kazi, and formally declared that he was his son. So Badr al-Din
Hasan became known in Damascus city as the cook's son, and he sat with
him in the shop to take the silver, and on this wise he sojourned
there for a time.

Thus far concerning him, but as regards his cousin, the Lady of
Beauty, when morning dawned she awoke and missed Badr al-Din Hasan
from her side; but she thought that he had gone to the privy and she
sat expecting him for an hour or so, when behold, entered her father
Shams al-Din Mohammed, Wazir of Egypt. Now he was disconsolate by
reason of what had befallen him through the Sultan, who had
entreated him harshly and had married his daughter by force to the
lowest of his menials and he too a lump of a groom hunchbacked withal,
and he said to himself, "I will slay this daughter of mine if her
own free she had yielded her person to this accursed carle." So he
came to the door of the bride's private chamber, and said, "Ho! Sitt
al-Husn." She answered him: "Here am I! Here am I! O my lord," and
came out unsteady of pit after the pains and pleasures of the night.
And she kissed his hand, her face showing redoubled brightness and
beauty for having lain in the arms of that gazelle, her cousin.

When her father, the Wazir, saw her in such case, he asked her, "O
thou accursed, art thou rejoicing because of this horse groom?" And
Sitt al-Husn smiled sweetly and answered: "By Allah, don't ridicule
me. Enough of what passed yesterday when folk laughed at me, and
evened me with that groom fellow who is not worthy to bring my
husband's shoes or slippers- nay, who is not worth the paring of my
husband's nails! By the Lord, never in my life have I nighted a
night so sweet as yesternight, so don't mock by reminding me of the
Gobbo." When her parent heard her words he was filled with fury, and
his eyes glared and stared, so that little of them showed save the
whites and he cried: "Fie upon thee! What words are these? 'Twas the
hunchbacked horse groom who passed the night with thee!" "Allah upon
thee," replied the Lady of Beauty, "do not worry me about the
Gobbo- Allah damn his father- and leave jesting with me, for this
groom was only hired for ten dinars and a porringer of meat and he
took his wage and went his way. As for me, I entered the bridal
chamber, where I found my true bridegroom sitting, after the singer
women had displayed me to him- the same who had crossed their hands
with red gold till every pauper that was present waxed wealthy. And
I passed the night on the breast of my bonny man, a most lively
darling, with his black eyes and joined eyebrows."

When her parent heard these words, the light before his face
became night, and he cried out at her, saying: "O thou whore! What
is this thou tellest me? Where be thy wits?" "O my father," she
rejoined, "thou breakest my heart. Enough for thee that thou hast been
so hard upon me! Indeed my husband who took my virginity is but just
now gone to the draught-house, and I feel that I have conceived by
him." The Wazir rose in much marvel and entered the privy, where he
found the hunchbacked horse groom with his head in the hole and his
heels in the air. At this sight he was confounded and said, "This is
none other than he, the rascal hunchback!" So he called to him, "Ho,
Hunchback!" The Gobbo grunted out, "Taghum! Taghum!" thinking it was
the Ifrit spoke to him, so the Wazir shouted at him and said, "Speak
out, or I'll strike off thy pate with this sword." Then quoth the
hunchback, "By Allah, O Sheikh of the Ifrits, ever since thou
settest me in this place I have not lifted my head, so Allah upon
thee, take pity and entreat me kindly!"

When the Wazir heard this he asked: "What is this thou sayest? I'm
the bride's father and no Ifrit." "Enough for thee that thou hast
well-nigh done me die," answered Quasimodo. "Now go thy ways before he
come upon thee who hath served me thus. Could ye not marry me to any
save the ladylove of buffaloes and the beloved of Ifrits? Allah
curse her, and curse him who married me to her and was the cause of
this my case." Then said the Wazir to him, "Up and out of this place!"
"Am I mad," cried the groom, "that I should go with thee without leave
of the Ifrit whose last words to me were: 'When the sun rises, arise
and go thy gait.' So hath the sun risen, or no? For I dare not budge
from this place till then." Asked the Wazir, "Who brought thee
hither?" And he answered, "I came here yesternight for a call of
nature and to do what none can do for me, when lo! a mouse came out of
the water, and squeaked at me and swelled and waxed gross till it
was big as a buffalo, and spoke to me words that entered my ears. Then
he left me here and went away. Allah curse the bride and him who
married me to her!"

The Wazir walked up to him and lifted his head out of the cesspool
hole, and he fared forth running for dear life and hardly crediting
that the sun had risen, and repaired to the Sultan, to whom he told
all that had befallen him with the Ifrit. But the Wazir returned to
the bride's private chamber, sore troubled in spirit about her, and
said to her, "O my daughter, explain this strange matter to me!" Quoth
she: "'Tis simply this. The bridegroom to whom they displayed me
yestereve lay with me all night, and took my virginity, and I am
with child by him. He is my husband, and if thou believe me not, there
are his turban twisted as it was, lying on the settle and his dagger
and his trousers beneath the bed with a something, I wot not what,
wrapped up in them."

When her father heard this, he entered the private chamber and found
the turban which had been left there by Badr al-Din Hasan, his
brother's son, and he took it in hand and turned it over, saying,
"This is the turban worn by Wazirs, save that it is of Mosul stuff."
So he opened it and, finding what seemed to be an amulet sewn up in
the fez, he unsewed the lining and took it out. Then he lifted up
the trousers, wherein was the purse of the thousand gold pieces and
opening that also, found in it a written paper. This he read, and it
was the sale receipt of the Jew in the name of Badr al-Din Hasan son
of Nur al-Din All, the Egyptian, and the thousand dinars were also
there.

No sooner had Shams al-Din read this than he cried out with a loud
cry and fell to the ground fainting, and as soon as he revived and
understood the gist of the matter he marveled and said: "There is no
god but the God, whose All-might is over all things! Knowest thou, O
my daughter, who it was that became the husband of thy virginity?"
"No," answered she, and he said: "Verily he is the son of my
brother, thy cousin, and this thousand dinars is thy dowry. Praise
be to Allah! And would I wot how this matter came about!" Then
opened he the amulet which was sewn up and found therein a paper in
the handwriting of his deceased brother, Nur al-Din the Egyptian,
father of Badr al-Din Hasan. And when he saw the handwriting, he
kissed it again and again, and he wept and wailed over his dead
brother. Then he read the scroll and found in it recorded the dates of
his brother's marriage with the daughter of the Wazir of Bassorah, and
of his going in to her, and her conception, and the birth of Badr
al-Din Hasan, and all his brother's history and doings up to his dying
day.

So he marveled much and shook with joy and, comparing the dates with
his own marriage and going in unto his wife and the birth of his
daughter, Sitt al-Husn, he found that they perfectly agreed. So he
took the document and, repairing with it to the Sultan, acquainted him
with what had passed, from first to last, whereat the King marveled
and commanded the case to be at once recorded. The Wazir abode that
day expecting to see his brother's son, but he came not, and he waited
a second day, a third day, and so on to the seventh day without any
tidings of him. So he said, "By Allah, I will do a deed such as none
hath ever done before me!" And he took reed pen and ink and drew
upon a sheet of paper the plan of the whole house, showing whereabouts
was the private chamber with the curtain in such a place and the
furniture in such another and so on with all that was in the room.
Then he folded up the sketch and, causing all the furniture to be
collected, he took Badr al-Din's garments and the turban and fez and
robe and purse, and carried the whole to his house and locked them up,
against the coming of his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of his
lost brother, with an iron padlock on which he set his seal.

As for the Wazir's daughter, when her tale of months was
fulfilled, she bare a son like the full moon, the image of his
father in beauty and loveliness and fair proportions and perfect
grace. They cut his navel string and kohled his eyelids to
strengthen his eyes, and gave him over to the nurses and nursery
governesses, naming him Ajib, the Wonderful. His day was as a month
and his month was as a year, and when seven years had passed over him,
his grandfather sent him to school, enjoining the master to teach
him Koran-reading, and to educate him well. He remained at the
school four years, till he began to bully his schoolfellows and
abuse them and bash them and thrash them and say: "Who among you is
like me? I am the son of the Wazir of Egypt!

At last the boys came in a body to complain to the monitor of what
hard usage they were wont to have from Ajib, and he said to them: "I
will tell you somewhat you may do to him so that he shall leave off
coming to the school, and it is this. When he enters tomorrow, sit
ye down about him and say some one of you to some other: 'By Allah,
none shall play with us at this game except he tell us the names of
his mamma and papa, for he who knows not the names of his mother and
his father is a bastard, a son of adultery, and he shall not play with
us."' When morning dawned, the boys came to school, Ajib being one
of them, and all flocked round him saying: "We will play a game
wherein none shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his
papa." And they all cried, "By Allah, good!" Then quoth one of them,
"My name is Majid and my mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz
al-Din." Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn
came, and he said, "My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt
al-Husn, and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." "By
Allah," cried they, "the Wazir is not thy true father." Ajib answered,
"The Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed and
clapped their hands at him, saying: "He does not know who is his papa.
Get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know
his father's name."

Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn,
so his breast was straitened and he well-nigh choked with tears and
hurt feelings. Then said the monitor to him: "We know that the Wazir
is thy grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not
thy father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do
we, for the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse
groom, but the Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast no known
father. Leave, then, comparing thyself too advantageously with the
littles ones of the school, till thou know that thou hast a lawful
father, for until then thou wilt pass for a child of adultery
amongst them. Seest thou not that even a huckster's son knoweth his
own sire? Thy grandfather is the Wazir of Egypt, but as for thy
father, we wot him not and we say indeed that thou hast none. So
return to thy sound senses!"

When Ajib heard these insulting words from the monitor and the
schoolboys and understood the reproach they put upon him, he went
out at once and ran to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain, but he
was crying so bitterly that his tears prevented his speech for a
while. When she heard his sobs and saw his tears, her heart burned
as though with fire for him, and she said: "O my son, why dost thou
weep? Allah keep the tears from thine eyes! Tell me what hath
betided thee." So he told her all that he heard from the boys and from
the monitor and ended with asking, "And who, O my mother, is my
father?" She answered, "Thy father is the Wazir of Egypt." But he
said: "Do not lie to me. The Wazir is thy father, not mine! Who then
is my father? Except thou tell me the very truth I will kill myself
with this hanger."

When his mother heard him speak of his father she wept,
remembering her cousin and her bridal night with him and all that
occurred there and then, and she repeated these couplets:

   "Love in my heart they lit and went their ways,
   And all I love to furthest lands withdrew,
   And when they left me sufferance also left,
   And when we parted Patience bade adieu.
   They fled and flying with my joys they fled,
   In very constancy my spirit flew.
   They made my eyelids flow with severance tears
   And to the parting pang these drops are due.
   And when I long to see reunion day, ruth I sue.
   My groans prolonging sore for ruth I sue.
   Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace,
   And love and longing care and cark renew.
   O ye whose names cling round me like a cloak,
   Whose love yet closer than a shirt I drew,
   Beloved ones, how long this hard despite?
   How long this severance and this coy shy flight?"

Then she wailed and shrieked aloud and her son did the like, and
behold, in came the Wazir, whose heart burnt within him at the sight
of their lamentations and he said, "What makes you weep?" So the
Lady of Beauty acquainted him with what happened between her son and
the schoolboys, and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what
had past between them and what had betided his daughter and how be had
failed to find out what mystery there was in the matter. Then he
rose at once and, repairing to the audience hall, went straight to the
King and told his tale and craved his permission to travel eastward to
the city of Bassorah and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore,
he besought the Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorizing
him to seize upon Badr al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law,
wheresoever he might find him. And he wept before the King, who had
pity on him and wrote royal autographs to his deputies in all climes
and countries and cities, whereat the Wazir rejoiced and prayed for
blessings on him.

Then, taking leave of his sovereign, he returned to his house, where
he equipped himself and his daughter and his adopted child Ajib with
all things meet for a long march, and set out and traveled the first
day and the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at
Damascus city. The Wazir encamped on the open space called AlHasa, and
after pitching tents, said to his servants, "A halt here for two
days!" So they went into the city upon their several occasions, this
to sell and that to buy, this to go to the hammam and that to visit
the cathedral mosque of the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, whose like
is not in this world. Ajib also went, with his attendant eunuch, for
solace and diversion to the city, and the servant followed with a
quarterstaff of almond wood so heavy that if he struck a camel
therewith the beast would never rise again.

When the people of Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and
perfect grace and symmetry (for he was a marvel of comeliness and
winning loveliness, softer than the cool breeze of the North,
sweeter than limpid waters to man in drought, and pleasanter than
the health for which sick man sueth), a mighty many followed him,
whilst others ran on before and sat down on the road until he should
come up, that they might gaze on him, till, as Destiny stopped
opposite the shop of Ajib's father, Badr al-Din Hasan. Now his beard
had grown long and thick and his wits had ripened during the twelve
years which had passed over him, and the cook and ex-rogue having
died, the so-called Hasan of Bassorah had succeeded to his goods and
shop, for that he had been formally adopted before the kazi and
witnesses. When his son and the eunuch stepped before him, he gazed on
Ajib and, seeing how very beautiful he was, his heart fluttered and
throbbed, and blood drew to blood and natural affection spake out
and his bowels yearned over him. He had just dressed a conserve of
pomegranate grains with sugar, and Heaven implanted love wrought
within him, so he called to his son Ajib and said: "O my lord, O
thou who hast gotten the mastery of my heart and my very vitals and to
whom my bowels yearn, say me, wilt thou enter my house and solace my
soul by eating of my meat?"

Then his eyes streamed with tears which he could not stay, for he
bethought him of what he had been and what he had become. When Ajib
heard his father's words, his heart also yearned himward, and he
looked at the eunuch and said to him: "Of a truth, O my good guard, my
heart yearns to this cook. He is as one that hath a son far away
from him. So let us enter and gladden his heart by tasting of his
hospitality. Perchance for our so doing Allah may reunite me with my
father." When the eunuch heard these words, he cried: "A fine thing
this, by Allah! Shall the sons of Wazirs be seen eating in a common
cookshop? Indeed I keep off the folk from thee with this
quarterstaff lest they even look upon thee, and I dare not suffer thee
to enter this shop at all."

When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech he marveled and turned to
the eunuch with the tears pouring down his cheeks, and Ajib said,
"Verily my heart loves him!" But he answered: "Leave this talk. Thou
shalt not go in." Thereupon the father turned to the eunuch and
said, "O worthy sir, why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering
my shop? O thou who art like a chestnut, dark without but white of
heart within! O thou of the like, of whom a certain poet said..." The
eunuch burst out a-laughing and asked: "Said what? Speak out, by
Allah, and be quick about it." So Hasan the Bassorite began reciting
these couplets:

   "If not master of manners or aught but discreet,
   In the household of kings no trust could he take,
   And then for the harem! What eunuch is he
   Whom angels would serve for his service' sake?"

The eunuch marveled and was pleased at these words, so he took
Ajib by the hand and went into the cook's shop; whereupon Hasan the
Bassorite ladled into a saucer some conserve of pomegranate grains
wonderfully good, dressed with almonds and sugar, saying: "You have
honored me with your company. Eat, then, and health and happiness to
you!" Thereupon Ajib said to his father, "Sit thee down and eat with
us, so perchance Allah may unite us with him we long for." Quoth
Hasan, "O my son, hast thou then been afflicted in thy tender years
with parting from those thou lovest?" Quoth Ajib: "Even so, O nuncle
mine. My heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other
than my father, and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather, to
circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I
long to meet him!" Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and his father
also wept seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, which
recalled to him his long separation from dear friends and from his
mother, and the eunuch was moved to pity for him.

Then they ate together till they were satisfied, and Ajib and the
slave rose and left the shop. Hereat Hasan the Bassorite felt as
though his soul had departed his body and had gone with them, for he
could not lose sight of the boy during the twinkling of an eye, albeit
he knew not that Ajib was his son. So he locked up his shop and
hastened after them, and he walked so fast that he came up with them
before they had gone out of the western gate. The eunuch turned and
asked him, "What ails thee?" and Badr al-Din answered, "When ye went
from me, meseemed my soul had gone with you, and as I had business
without the city gate, I purposed to bear you company till my matter
was ordered, and so return." The eunuch was angered, and said to Ajib:
"This is just what I feared! We ate that unlucky mouthful (which we
are bound to respect), and here is the fellow following us from
place to place, for the vulgar are ever the vulgar."

Ajib, turning and seeing the cook just behind him, was wroth, and
his face reddened with rage and he said to the servant: "Let him
walk the highway of the Moslems, but when we turn off it to our
tents and find that he still follows us, we will send him about his
business with a flea in his ear." Then he bowed his head and walked
on, the eunuch walking behind him. But Hasan of Bassorah followed them
to the plain Al-Hasa, and as they drew near to the tents, they
turned round and saw him close on their heels, so Ajib was very angry,
fearing that the eunuch might tell his grandfather what had
happened. His indignation was the hotter for apprehension lest any say
that after he had entered a cookshop the cook had followed him. So
he turned and looked at Hasan of Bassorah and found his eyes fixed
on his own, for the father had become a body without a soul, and it
seemed to Ajib that his eye was a treacherous eye or that he was
some lewd fellow.

So his rage redoubled and, stooping down, he took up a stone
weighing half a pound and threw it at his father. It struck him on the
forehead, cutting it open from eyebrow to eyebrow and causing the
blood to stream down, and Hasan fell to the ground in a swoon whilst
Ajib and the eunuch made for the tents. When the father came to
himself, he wiped away the blood and tore off a strip from his
turban and bound up his head, blaming himself the while, and saying,
"I wronged the lad by shutting up my shop and following, so that he
thought I was some evil-minded fellow." Then he returned to his place,
where he busied himself with the sale of his sweetmeats, and he yeamed
after his mother at Bassorah, and wept over her and broke out
repeating:

   "Unjust it were to bid the world be just
   And blame her not. She ne'er was made for justice.
   Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside,
   For now to fair and then to foul her lust is."

So Hasan of Bassorah set himself steadily to sell his sweetmeats,
but the Wazir, his uncle, halted in Damascus three days and then
marched upon Emesa, and passing through that town, he made inquiry
there, and at every place where he rested. Thence he fared on by way
of Hamah and Aleppo and thence through Diyar Bakr and Maridin and
Mosul, still inquiring, till he arrived at Bassorah city. Here, as
soon as he had secured a lodging, he presented himself before the
Sultan, who entreated him with high honor and the respect due to his
rank, and asked the cause of his coming. The Wazir acquainted him with
his history and told him that the Minister Nur al-Din was his brother,
whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, "Allah have mercy upon him!" and
added: "My good Sahib, he was my Wazir for fifteen years and I loved
him exceedingly. Then he died leaving a son who abode only a single
month after his father's death, since which time he has disappeared
and we could gain no tidings of him. But his mother, who is the
daughter of my former Minister, is still among us."

When the Wazir Shams al-Din heard that his nephew's mother was alive
and well, he rejoiced and said, "O King, I much desire to meet her."
The King on the instant gave him leave to visit her, so he betook
himself to the mansion of his brother Nur al-Din and cast sorrowful
glances on all things in and around it and kissed the threshold.
Then he bethought him of his brother Nur al-Din Ali, and how he had
died in a strange land far from kith and kin and friends, and he
wept and repeated these lines:

   "I wander 'mid these walls, my Lavla's walls,
   And kissing this and other wall I roam.
   'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves,
   But those who in this house had made their home."

Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard and found a vaulted
doorway builded of hardest syenite inlaid with sundry kinds of
multicolored marble. Into this he walked, and wandered about the house
and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of his brother Nur
al-Din written in gold wash upon the walls. So he went up to the
inscription and kissed it and wept and thought of how he had been
separated from his brother and had now lost him forever.

Then he walked on till he came to the apartment of his brother's
widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now from the
time of her son's disappearance she had never ceased weeping and
wailing through the light hours and the dark, and when the years
grew longsome with her, she built for him a tomb of marble in the
midst of the saloon and there used to weep for him day and night,
never sleeping save thereby. When the Wazir drew near her apartment,
he heard her voice and stood behind the door while she addressed the
sepulcher in verse and said:

 "Answer, by Allah! Sepulcher, are all his beauties gone?
 Hath change the power to blight his charms, that beauty's paragon?
 Thou art not earth, O Sepulcher! Nor art thou sky to me.
 How comes it, then, in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon?"

While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the
Wazir went in to her and saluted her and informed her that he was
her husband's brother, and, telling her all that had passed beween
them, laid open before her the whole story- how her son Badr al-Din
Hasan had spent a whole night with his daughter full ten years ago,
but had disappeared in the morning. And he ended with saying: "My
daughter conceived by thy son and bare a male child who is now with
me, and he is thy son and thy son's son by my daughter." When she
heard the tidings that her boy Badr al-Din was still alive and saw her
brother-in-law, she rose up to him and threw herself at his feet and
kissed them. Then the Wazir sent for Ajib and his grandmother stood up
and fell on his neck and wept, but Shams al-Din said to her: "This
is no time for weeping. This is the time to get thee ready for
traveling with us to the land of Egypt. Haply Allah will reunite me
and thee with thy son and my nephew." Replied she, "Hearkening and
obedience," and, rising at once, collected her baggage and treasures
and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave girls for the
march, whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan of
Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Sultan of
Egypt.

Then he set out at once upon his homeward march and journeyed till
he came to Damascus city, where he alighted in the usual place and
pitched tents, and said to his suite, "We will halt a sennight here to
buy presents and rare things for the Sultan." Now Ajib bethought him
of the past, so he said to the eunuch: "O Laik, I want a little
diversion. Come, let us go down to the great bazaar of Damascus and
see what hath become of the cook whose sweetmeats we ate and whose
head we broke, for indeed he was kind to us and we entreated him
scurvily." The eunuch answered, "Hearing is obeying!" So they went
forth from the tents, and the tie of blood drew Ajib toward his
father, and forthwith they passed through the gateway, Bab
al-Faradis hight, and entered the city and ceased not walking
through the streets till they reached the cookshop, where they found
Hasan of Bassorah standing at the door. It was near the time of
midafternoon prayer, and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a
confection of pomegranate grains.

When the twain drew near to him and Ajib saw him, his heart
yearned toward him, and noticing the scar of the blow, which time
had darkened on his brow, he said to him: "Peace be on thee, O man!
Know that my heart is with thee." But when Badr al-Din looked upon his
son, his vitals yearned and his heart fluttered, and he hung his
head earthward and sought to make his tongue give utterance to his
words, but he could not. Then he raised his head humbly and
suppliant-wise toward his boy and repeated these couplets:

   "I longed for my beloved, but when I saw his face,
   Abashed I held my tongue and stood with downcast eye,
   And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love,
   But do whatso I would, hidden it would not he.
   Volumes of plaints I had prepared, reproach and blame,
   But when we met, no single word remembered I."

And then said he to them: "Heal my broken heart and eat of my
sweetmeats, for, by Allah, I cannot look at thee but my heart
flutters. Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day but
that I was beside myself." "By Allah," answered Ajib, "thou dost
indeed love us! We ate in thy house a mouthful when we were here
before and thou madest us repent for it, for that thou followedst us
and wouldst have disgraced us, so now we will not eat aught with
thee save on condition that thou make oath not to go out after us
nor dog us. Otherwise we will not visit thee again during our
present stay, for we shall halt a week here whilst my grandfather buys
certain presents for the King." Quoth Hasan of Bassorah, "I promise
you this."

So Ajib and the eunuch entered the shop, and his father set before
them a saucerful of conserve of pomegranate grains. Said Ajib: "Sit
thee down and eat with us. So haply shall Allah dispel our sorrows."
Hasan the Bassorite was joyful and sat down and ate with them, but his
eyes kept gazing fixedly on Ajib's face, for his very heart and vitals
clove to him, and at last the boy said to him: "Did I not tell thee
thou art a most noyous dotard? So do stint thy staring in my face!"
Hansan kept putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at
another time did the same by the eunuch, and they ate till they were
satisfied and could no more. Then all rose up and the cook poured
water on their hands, and loosing a silken waist shawl, dried them and
sprinkled them with rose-water from a casting bottle he had by him.
Then he went out and presently returned with a gugglet of sherbet
flavored with rose-water, scented with musk, and cooled with snow, and
he set this before them saying, "Complete your kindness to me!" So
Ajib took the gugglet and drank and passed it to the eunuch, and it
went round till their stomachs were full and they were surfeited with
a meal larger than their wont.

Then they went away and made haste in walking till they reached
the tents, and Ajib went in to his grandmother, who kissed him and,
thinking of her son Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned aloud and wept. Then
she asked Ajib: "O my son! Where hast thou been?" And he answered, "In
Damascus city." Whereupon she rose and set before him a bit of scone
and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate grains (which was too little
sweetened), and she said to the eunuch, "Sit down with thy master!"
Said the servant to himself: "By Allah, we have no mind to eat. I
cannot bear the smell of bread." But he sat down, and so did Ajib,
though his stomach was full of what he had eaten already and
drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit of the bread and dipped it in
the pomegranate conserve and made shift to eat it, but he found it too
little sweetened, for he was cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh,
what be this wild-beast stuff?" "O my son," cried his grandmother,
"dost thou find fault with my cookery? I cooked this myself and none
can cook it as nicely as I can, save thy father, Badr al-Din Hasan."
"By Allah, O my lady," Ajib answered, "this dish is nasty stuff, for
we saw but now in the city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth
pomegranate grains that the very smell openeth a way to the heart
and the taste would make a full man long to eat. And as for this
mess compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or little."

When his grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth with exceeding
wrath and looked at the servant and said: "Woe to thee! Dost thou
spoil my son, and dost take him into common cookshops?" The eunuch was
frightened and denied, saying, "We did not go into the shop, we only
passed by it." "By Allah," cried Ajib, "but we did go in, and we ate
till it came out of our nostrils, and the dish was better than thy
dish!" Then his grandmother rose and went and told her brother-in-law,
who was incensed against the eunuch, and sending for him, asked him,
"Why didst thou take my son into a cookshop?" And the eunuch, being
frightened, answered, "We did not go in." But Ajib said, "We did go
inside and ate conserve of pomegranate grains till we were fall, and
the cook gave us to drink of iced and sugared sherbet."

At this the Wazir's indignation redoubled and he questioned the
castrato, but as he still denied, the Wazir said to him, "If thou
speak sooth, sit down and eat before us." So he came forward and tried
to eat, but could not, and threw away the mouthful crying: "O my lord!
I am surfeited since yesterday." By this the Wazir was certified
that he had eaten at the cook's, and bade the slaves throw him,
which they did. Then they came down on him with a rib-basting which
burned him till he cried for mercy and help from Allah, saying, "O
my master, beat me no more and I will tell thee the truth."
Whereupon the Wazir stopped the bastinado and said, "Now speak thou
sooth." Quoth the eunuch, "Know then that we did enter the shop of a
cook while he was dressing conserve of pomegranate grains, and he
set some of it before us. By Allah! I never ate in my life its like,
nor tasted aught nastier than this stuff which is now before us." Badr
al-Din Hasan's mother was angry at this and said, "Needs must thou
go back to the cook and bring me a saucer of conserved pomegranate
grains from that which is in his shop and show it to thy master,
that he may say which be the better and the nicer, mine or his."
Said the unsexed, "I will."

So on the instant she gave him a saucer and a half-dinar and he
returned to the shop and said to the cook, "O Sheikh of all Cooks,
we have laid a wager concerning thy cookery in my lord's house, for
they have conserve of pomegranate grains there also. So give me this
half-dinar's worth and look to it, for I have eaten a full meal of
stick on account of thy cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more
thereof." Hasan of Bassorah laughed and answered: "By Allah, none
can dress this dish as it should be dressed save myself and my mother,
and she at this time is in a far country." Then he ladled out a
saucerful and, finishing it off with musk and rose-water, put it in
a cloth, which he sealed, and gave it to the eunuch, who hastened back
with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din Hasan's mother tasted it and
perceived its fine flavor and the excellence of the cookery then she
knew who had dressed it, and she screamed and fell down fainting.

The Wazir, sorely startled, sprinkled rose-water upon her, and after
a time she recovered and said: "If my son be yet of this world, none
dressed this conserve of pomegranate grains but he, and this cook is
my very son Badr al-Din Hasan. There is no doubt of it, nor can
there be any mistake, for only I and he knew how to prepare it and I
taught him." When the Wazir heard her words, he joyed with exceeding
joy and said: "Oh, the longing of me for a sight of my brother's
son! I wonder if the days will ever unite us with him! Yet it is to
Almighty Allah alone that we look for bringing about this meeting."
Then he rose without stay or delay and, going to his suite, said to
them, "Be off, some fifty of you, with sticks and staves to the cook's
shop and demolish it, then pinion his arms behind him with his own
turban, saying, 'It was thou madest that foul mess of pomegranate
grains!' And drag him here perforce, but without doing him a harm."
And they replied, "It is well."

Then the Wazir rode off without losing an instant to the palace and,
forgathering with the Viceroy of Damascus, showed him the Sultan's
orders. After careful perusal he kissed the letter and placing it upon
his head, said to his visitor, "Who is this offender-of thine?"
Quoth the Wazir, "A man which is a cook." So the Viceroy at once
sent his apparitors to the shop, which they found demolished and
everything in it broken to pieces, for whilst the Wazir was riding
to the palace his men had done his bidding. Then they awaited his
return from the audience, and Hasan of Bassorah, who was their
prisoner, kept saying, "I wonder what they have found in the
conserve of pomegranate grains to bring things to this pass!"

When the Wazir returned to them after his visit to the Viceroy,
who had given him formal permission to take up his debtor and depart
with him, on entering the tents he called for the cook. They brought
him forward pinioned with his turban, and, when Badr al-Din Hasan
saw his uncle, he wept with exceeding weeping and said, "O my lord,
what is my offense against thee?" "Art thou the man who dressed that
conserve of pomegranate grains?" asked the Wazir, and he answered
"Yes! Didst thou find in it aught to call for the cutting off of my
head?" Quoth the Wazir, "That were the least of thy deserts!" Quoth
the cook, "O my lord, wilt thou not tell me my crime, and what
aileth the conserve of pomegranate grains?" "Presently," replied the
Wazir, and called aloud to his men, saying "Bring hither the camels."

So they struck the tents and by the Wazir's orders the servants took
Badr al-Din Hasan and set him in a chest which they padlocked and
put on a camel. Then they departed and stinted not journeying till
nightfall, when they halted and ate some victual, and took Badr al-Din
Hasan out of his chest and gave him a meal and locked him up again.
They set out once more and traveled till they reached Kimrah, where
they took him out of the box and brought him before the Wazir, who
asked him, "Art thou he who dressed that conserve of pomegranate
grains?" He answered "Yes, O my lord!" and the Wazir said, "Fetter
him!" So they fettered him and returned him to the chest and fared
on again till they reached Cairo and lighted at the quarter called
Al-Raydaniyah. Then the Wazir gave order to take Badr al-Din Hasan out
of the chest and sent for a carpenter and said to him, "Make me a
cross of wood for this fellow!" Cried Badr al-Din Hasan, "And what
wilt thou do with it?" and the Wazir replied, "I mean to crucify
thee thereon, and nail thee thereto and parade thee all about the
city."

"And why wilt thou use me after this fashion?" "Because of thy
villainous cookery of conserved pomegranate grains. How durst thou
dress it and sell it lacking pepper?" "And for that it lacked
pepper, wilt thou do all this to me? Is it not enough that thou hast
broken my shop and smashed my gear and boxed me up in a chest and
fed me only once a day?" "Too little pepper! Too little pepper! This
is a crime which can be expiated only upon the cross!" Then Badr
al-Din Hasan marveled and fell a-mourning for his life, whereupon
the Wazir asked him, "Of what thinkest thou?" and he answered him, "Of
maggoty heads like thine, for an thou had one ounce of sense, thou
hadst not treated me thus." Quoth the Wazir, "It is our duty to punish
thee, lest thou do the like again." Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "Of a
truth my offense were overpunished by the least of what thou hast
already done to me, and Allah damn all conserve of pomegranate
grains and curse the hour when I cooked it, and would I had died ere
this!" But the Wazir rejoined, "There is no help for it. I must
crucify a man who sells conserve of pomegranate grains lacking
pepper."

All this time the carpenter was shaping the wood and Badr al-Din
looked on, and thus they did till night, when his uncle took him and
clapped him into the chest, saying, "The thing shall be done
tomorrow!" Then he waited till he knew Badr al-Din Hasan to be asleep,
when he mounted and, taking the chest up before him, entered the
city and rode on to his own house, where he alighted and said to his
daughter, Sitt al-Husn, "Praised be Allah Who hath reunited thee
with thy husband, the son of thine uncle! Up now, and order the
house as it was on thy bridal night." So the servants arose and lit
the candles, and the Wazir took out his plan of the nuptial chamber,
and directed them what to do till they had set everything in its
stead, so that whoever saw it would have no doubt but it was the
very night of the marriage. Then he bade them put down Badr al-Din
Hasan's turban on the settle, as he had deposited it with his own
hand, and in like manner his bag trousers and the purse which were
under the mattress, and told his daughter to undress herself and go to
bed in the private chamber as on her wedding night, adding: "When
the son of thine uncle comes in to thee say to him, 'Thou hast
loitered while going to the privy,' and call him to lie by thy side
and keep him in converse till daybreak, when we will explain the whole
matter to him."

Then he bade take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the chest, after
loosing the fetters from his feet and stripping off all that was on
him save the fine shirt of blue silk in which he had slept on his
wedding night, so that he was well-nigh naked, and trouserless. All
this was done whilst he was sleeping on utterly unconscious. Then,
by doom of Destiny, Badr al-Din Hasan turned over and awoke, and
finding himself in a lighted vestibule, said to himself, "Surely I
am in the mazes of some dream." So he rose and went on a little to
an inner door and looked in, and lo! he was in the very chamber
wherein the bride had been displayed to him, and there he saw the
bridal alcove and the settle and his turban and all his clothes.

When he saw this, he was confounded, and kept advancing with one
foot and retiring with the other, saying, "Am I sleeping or waking?"
And he began rubbing his forehead and saying (for indeed he was
thoroughly astounded): "By Allah, verily this is the chamber of the
bride who was displayed before me! Where am I, then? I was surely
but now in a box!" Whilst he was talking with himself, Sitt al-Husn
suddenly lifted the corner of the chamber curtain and said, "O my
lord, wilt thou not come in? Indeed thou hast loitered long in the
watercloset." When he heard her words and saw her face, he burst out
laughing and said, "Of a truth this is a very nightmare among dreams!"
Then he went in sighing, and pondered what had come to pass with him
and was perplexed about his case, and his affair became yet more
obscure to him when he saw his turban and bag trousers and when,
feeling the pocket, he found the purse containing the thousand gold
pieces. So he stood still and muttered: "Allah is All-knowing!
Assuredly I am dreaming a wild waking dream!"

Then said the Lady of Beauty to him, "What ails thee to look puzzled
and perplexed?" adding, "Thou wast a very different man during the
first of the night!" He laughed and asked her, "How long have I been
away from thee?" and she answered him: "Allah preserve thee and His
Holy Name be about thee! Thou didst but go out an hour ago for an
occasion and return. Are thy wits clean gone?" When Badr al-Din
Hasan heard this, he laughed and said: "Thou hast spoken truth, but
when I went out from thee, I forgot myself awhile in the
draughthouse and dreamed that I was a cook at Damascus and abode there
ten years, and there came to me a boy who was of the sons of the
great, and with him a eunuch." Here he passed his hand over his
forehead and, feeling the scar, cried: "By Allah, O my lady, it must
have been true, for he struck my forehead with a stone and cut it open
from eyebrow to eyebrow, and here is the mark, so it must have been on
wake." Then he added: "But perhaps I dreamt it when we fell asleep,
I and thou, in each other's arms, for meseems it was as though I
traveled to Damascus without tarboosh and trousers and set up as a
cook there."

Then he was perplexed and considered for a while, and said: "By
Allah, I also fancied that I dressed a conserve of pomegranate
grains and put too little pepper in it. By Allah, I must have slept in
the numero-cent and have seen the whole of this is a dream, but how
long was that dream!" "Allah upon thee," said Sitt al-Husn, "and
what more sawest thou?" So he related all to her, and presently
said, "By Allah, had I not woke up, they would have nailed me to a
cross of wood!" "Wherefore?" asked she, and he answered: "For
putting too little pepper in the conserve of pomegranate grains, and
meseemed they demolished my shop and dashed to pieces my pots and
pans, destroyed all my stuff, and put me in a box. Then they sent
for the carpenter to fashion a cross for me and would have crucified
me thereon. Now Alhamdolillah! thanks be to Allah, for that all this
happened to me in sleep, and not on wake." Sitt al-Husn laughed and
clasped him to her bosom and he her to his.

Then he thought again and said: "By Allah, it could not be save
while I was awake. Truly I know not what to think of it." Then he
lay down, and all the night he was bewildered about his case, now
saying, "I was dreaming!" and then saying, "I was awake!" till
morning, when his uncle Shams al-Din, the Wazir, came too him and
saluted him. When Badr al-Din Hasan saw him he said: "By Allah, art
thou not he who bade bind my hands behind me and smash my shop and
nail me to a cross on a matter of conserved pomegranate grains because
the dish lacked a sufficiency of pepper?" Whereupon the Wazir said
to him: "Know, O my son, that truth hath shown it soothfast and the
concealed hath been revealed! Thou art the son of my brother, and I
did all this with thee to certify myself that thou wast indeed he
who went in unto my daughter that night. I could not be sure of this
till I saw that thou knewest the chamber and thy turban and thy
trousers and thy gold and the papers in thy writing and in that of thy
father, my brother, for I had never seen thee afore that and knew thee
not. And as to thy mother, I have prevailed upon her to come with me
from Bassorah."

So saying, he threw himself on his nephew's breast and wept for joy,
and Badr al-Din Hasan, hearing these words from his uncle, marveled
with exceeding marvel and fell on his neck and also shed tears for
excess of delight. Then said the Wazir to him, "O my son, the sole
cause of all this is what passed between me and thy sire," and he told
him the manner of his father wayfaring to Bassorah and all that had
occurred to part them. Lastly the Wazir sent for Ajib, and when his
father saw him he cried, "And this is he who struck me with the
stone!" Quoth the Wazir, "This is thy son!" And Badr al-Din Hasan
threw himself upon his boy and began repeating:

   "Long have I wept o'er severance' ban and bane,
   Long from mine eyelids tear rills rail and rain.
   And vowed I if Time reunion bring,
   My tongue from name of "Severance" I'll restrain.
   Joy hath o'ercome me to this stress that I
   From joy's revulsion to shed tears am fain.
   Ye are so trained to tears, O eyne of me!
   You weep with pleasure as you weep in pain."

When he had ended his verse his mother came in and threw herself
upon him and began reciting:

        "When we met we complained,
        Our hearts were sore wrung.
        But plaint is not pleasant
        Fro' messenger's tongue."

Then she wept and related to him what had befallen her since his
departure, and he told her what he had suffered, and they thanked
Allah Almighty for their reunion.

Two days after his arrival the Wazir Shams al-Din went in to the
Sultan and, kissing the ground between his hands, greeted him with the
greeting due to kings. The Sultan rejoiced at his return and his
face brightened and, placing him hard by his side, asked him to relate
all he had seen in his wayfaring and whatso had betided him in his
going and coming. So the Wazir told him all that had passed from first
to last and the Sultan said: "Thanks be to Allah for thy victory and
the winning of thy wish and thy safe return to thy children and thy
people! And now I needs must see the son of thy brother, Hasan of
Bassorah, so bring him to the audience hall tomorrow." Shams al-Din
replied, "Thy slave shall stand in thy presence tomorrow, Inshallah,
if it be God's will." Then he saluted him and, returning to his own
house, informed his nephew of the Sultan's desire to see him,
whereto replied Hasan, whilom the Bassorite, "Me slave is obedient
to the orders of his lord." And the result was that next day he
accompanied his uncle, Shams al-Din, to the Divan, and after
saluting the Sultan and doing him reverence in most ceremonious
obeisance and with most courtly obsequiousness, he began improvising
these verses:

   "The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign
   Before you, and all ends and aims attain.
   You are Honor's fount, and all that hope of you,
   Shall gain more honor than Hope hoped to gain."

The Sultan smiled and signed to him to sit down. So he took a seat
close to his uncle, Shams al-Din, and the King asked him his name.
Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "The meanest of thy slaves is known as
Hasan the Bassorite, who is instant in prayer for thee day and night."
The Sultan was pleased at his words and, being minded to test his
learning and prove his good breeding, asked him, "Dost thou remember
any verses in praise of the mole on the cheek?" He answered, "I do,"
and began reciting:

   "When I think of my love and our parting smart,
   My groans go forth and my tears upstart.
   He's a mole that reminds me in color and charms
   O' the black o' the eye and the grain of the heart."

The King admired and praised the two couplets and said to him:
"Quote something else. Allah bless thy sire, and may thy tongue
never tire!" So he began:

   That cheek mole's spot they evened with a grain
   Of Musk, nor did they here the simile strain.
   Nay, marvel at the face comprising all
   Beauty, nor falling short by single grain."

The King shook with pleasure and said to him: "Say more. Allah bless
thy days!" So be began:

   "O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls
   A dot of musk upon a stone of ruby,
   Grant me your favors! Be not stone at heart!
   Core of my heart, whose only sustenance you be!"

Quoth the King: "Fair comparison, O Hasan! Thou hast spoken
excellently well and hast proved thyself accomplished in every
accomplishment! Now explain to me how many meanings be there in the
Arabic language for the word khal or mole." He replied, "Allah keep
the King! Seven and fifty, and some by tradition say fifty." Said
the Sultan, "Thou sayest sooth," presently adding, "Hast thou
knowledge as to the points of excellence in beauty?" "Yes," answered
Badr al-Din Hasan. "Beauty consisteth in brightness of face, clearness
of complexion, shapeliness of nose, gentleness of eyes, sweetness of
mouth, cleverness of speech, slenderness of shape, and seemliness of
all attributes. But the acme of beauty is in the hair and indeed
al-Shihab the Hijazi hath brought together all these items in his
doggrel verse of the meter Rajaz, and it is this:

   "Say thou to skin 'Be soft,' to face 'Be fair,'
   And gaze, nor shall they blame howso thou stare.
   Fine nose in Beauty's list is high esteemed,
   Nor less an eye full, bright and debonnair.
   Eke did they well to laud the lovely lips
   (Which e'en the sleep of me will never spare),
   A winning tongue, a stature tall and straight,
   A seemly union of gifts rarest rare.
   But Beauty's acme in the hair one views it,
   So hear my strain and with some few excuse it!"

The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as a
friend, asked, "What meaning is there in the saw 'Shurayh is foxier
than the fox'?" And he answered, "Know, O King (whom Almighty Allah
keep!), that the legist Shurayh was wont, during the days of the
plague, to make a visitation to Al-Najaf, and whenever he stood up
to pray, there came a fox which would plant himself facing him and
which, by mimicking his movements, distracted him from his
devotions. Now when this became longsome to him, one day he doffed his
shirt and set it upon a cane and shook out the sleeves. Then,
placing his turban on the top and girding its middle with a shawl,
he stuck it up in the place where he used to pray. Presently up
trotted the fox according to his custom and stood over against the
figure, whereupon Shurayh came behind him, and took him. Hence the
sayer saith, 'Shurayh is foxier than the fox.'" When the Sultan
heard Badr al-Din Hasan's explanation he said to his uncle, Shams
al-Din, "Truly this the son of thy brother is perfect in courtly
breeding and I do not think that his like can be found in Cairo." At
this Hasan arose and kissed the ground before him and sat down again
as a Mameluke should sit before his master.

When the Sultan had thus assured himself of his courtly breeding and
bearing and his knowledge of the liberal arts and belles-lettres, he
joyed with exceeding joy and invested him with a splendid robe of
honor and promoted him to an office whereby he might better his
condition. Then Badr al-Din Hasan arose and, kissing the ground before
the King, wished him continuance of glory and asked leave to retire
with his uncle, the Wazir Shams al-Din. The Sultan gave him leave
and he issued forth, and the two returned home, where food was set
before them and they ate what Allah had given them. After finishing
his meal Hasan repaired to the sitting chamber of his wife, the Lady
of Beauty, and told her what had past between him and the Sultan,
whereupon quoth she: "He cannot fail to make thee a cup companion
and give thee largess in excess and load thee with favors and
bounties. So shalt thou, by Allah's blessing, dispread, like the
greater light, the rays of thy perfection wherever thou be, on shore
or on sea." Said he to her, "I purpose to recite a Kasidah, an ode, in
his praise, that he may redouble in affection for me." "Thou art right
in thine intent," she answered, "so gather thy wits together and weigh
thy words, and I shall surely see my husband favored with his
highest favor." Thereupon Hasan shut himself up and composed these
couplets on a solid base and abounding in inner grace and copied
them out in a handwriting of the nicest taste. They are as follows:

   Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate,
   Treading the pathways of the good and great.
   His justice makes all regions safe and sure,
   And against froward foes bars every gate.
   Bold lion, hero, saint, e'en if you call
   Seraph or Sovran he with an may rate!
   The poorest suppliant rich from him returns,
   All words to praise him were inadequate.
   He to the day of peace is saffron Morn,
   And murky Night in furious warfare's bate,
   Bow 'neath his gifts our necks, and by his deeds
   As King of freeborn souls he 'joys his state.
   Allah increase for us his term of years,
   And from his lot avert all risks and fears!

When he had finished transcribing the lines, he dispatched them in
charge of one of his uncle's slaves to the Sultan, who perused them,
and his fancy was pleased, so he read them to those present and all
praised them with the highest praise. Thereupon he sent for the writer
to his sitting chamber and said to him: "Thou art from this day
forth my boon companion, and I appoint to thee a monthly solde of a
thousand dirhams, over and above that I bestowed on thee aforetime."
So Hasan rose and, kissing the ground before the King several times,
prayed for the continuance of his greatness and glory and length of
life and strength. Thus Badr al-Din Hasan the Bassorite waxed high
in honor and his fame flew forth to many regions, and he abode in
all comfort and solace and delight of life with his uncle and his
own folk till death overtook him.

When the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard this story from the mouth of
his Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmecide, he marveled much and said, "It
behooves that these stories be written in letters of liquid gold."
Then he set the slaves at liberty and assigned to the youth who had
slain his wife such a monthly stipend as sufficed to make his life
easy. He also gave him a concubine from amongst his own slave girls,
and the young man became one of his cup companions.

THE CITY OF MANY-COLUMNED IRAM AND ABDULLAH SON OF ABI KILABAH


IT is related that Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah went forth in quest of a
she-camel which had strayed from him, and as he was wandering in the
deserts of Al-Yaman and the district of Saba, behold, he came a
great city girt by a vast castle around which were palaces and
pavilions that rose high into middle air. He made for the place
thinking to find there folk of whom he might ask concerning his
she-camel. But when he reached it, he found it desolate, without a
living soul in it. So (quoth he) I alighted and, hobbling my
dromedary, and composing my mind, entered into the city.

Now when I came to the castle, I found it had two vast gates
(never in the world was seen their like for size and height) inlaid
with all manner jewels and jacinths, white and red, yellow and
green. Beholding this, I marveled with great marvel and thought the
case mighty wondrous. Then, entering the citadel in a flutter of
fear and dazed with surprise and affright, I found it long and wide,
about equaling Al-Medinah in point of size. And therein were lofty
palaces laid out in pavilions all built of gold and silver and
inlaid with many colored jewels and jacinths and chrysolites and
pearls. And the door leaves in the pavilions were like those of the
castle for beauty, and their floors were strewn with great pearls
and balls, no smaller than hazelnuts, of musk and ambergris and
saffron.

Now when I came within the heart of the city and saw therein no
created beings of the Sons of Adam, I was near swooning and dying
for fear. Moreover, I looked down from the great roofs of the pavilion
chambers and their balconies and saw rivers running under them, and in
the main streets were fruit-laden trees and tall palms, and the manner
of their building was one brick of gold and one of silver. So I said
to myself, "Doubtless this is the Paradise promised for the world to
come." Then I loaded me with the jewels of its gravel and the musk
of its dust as much as I could carry, and returned to my own
country, where I told the folk what I had seen.

After a time the news reached Mu'awiyah, son of Abu Sufyan, who
was then Caliph in Al-Hijaz, so he wrote to his lieutenant in San'a of
Al-Yaman to send for the teffer of the story and question him of the
truth of the case. Accordingly the lieutenant summoned me and
questioned me of my adventure and of all appertaining to it, and I
told him what I had seen, whereupon he dispatched me to Mu'awiyah,
before whom I, repeated the story of the strange sights, but he
would not credit it. So I brought out to him some of the pearls and
balls of musk and ambergris and saffron, in which latter there was
still some sweet savor, but the pearls were grown yellow and had
lost pearly color.

Now Mu'awiyah wondered at this and, sending for Ka'ab al-Ahbar, said
to him, "O Ka'ab, I have sent for thee to ascertain the truth of a
certain matter and hope that thou wilt be able to certify me thereof."
Asked Ka'ab, "What is it, O Commander of the Faithful?" and
Mu'awiyah answered, "Wottest thou of any city founded by man which
is builded of gold and silver, the pillars whereof are of chrysolite
and rubies and its gravel pearls and bans of musk and ambergris and
saffron?" He replied, "Yes, O Commander of the Faithful, this is 'Iram
with pillars decked and dight, the like of which was never made in the
lands,' and the builder was Shaddad son of Ad the Greater." Quoth
the Caliph, 'Tell us something of its history," and Ka'ab said:

"Ad the Greater had two sons, Shadid and Shaddad, who when their
father died ruled conjointly in his stead, and there was no King of
the Kings of the earth but was subject to them. After awhile Shadid
died and his brother Shaddad reigned over the earth alone. Now he
was fond of reading in antique books, and happening upon the
description of the world to come and of Paradise, with its pavilions
and pileries and trees and fruits and so forth, his soul move him to
build the like thereof in this world, after the fashion aforesaid. Now
under his hand were a hundred thousand kings, each ruling over a
hundred thousand chiefs, commanding each a hundred thousand
warriors, so he called these all before him and said to them: 'I
find in ancient books and annals a description of Paradise as it is to
be in the next world, and I desire to build me its like in this world.
Go ye forth therefore to the goodliest tract on earth and the most
spacious, and build me there a city of gold and silver, whose gravel
shall be chrysolite and rubies and pearls, and for support of its
vaults make pillars of jasper. Fill it with palaces, whereon ye
shall set galleries and balconies, and plant its lanes and
thoroughfares with all manner trees bearing yellow-ripe fruits, and
make rivers to run through it in channels of gold and silver.'

"Whereat said one and all, 'How are we able to do this thing thou
hast commanded, and whence shall we get the chrysolites and rubies and
pearls whereof thou speakest?' Quoth he, 'What! Weet ye not that the
kings of the world are subject to me and under my hand and that none
therein dare gainsay my word?' Answered they, 'Yes, we know that.'
Whereupon the King rejoined, 'Fare ye then to the mines of chrysolites
and rubies and pearls and gold and silver and collect their produce
and gather together all of value that is in the world, and spare no
pains and leave naught. And take also for me such of these things as
be in men's hands and let nothing escape you. Be diligent and beware
of disobedience.' And thereupon he wrote letters to all the kings of
the world and bade them gather together whatso of these things was
in their subjects' hands, and get them to the mines of precious stones
and metals, and bring forth all that was therein, even from the
abysses of the seas.

"This they accomplished in the space of twenty years, for the number
of rulers then reigning over the earth was three hundred and sixty
kings. And Shaddad presently assembled from all lands and countries
architects and engineers and men of art and laborers and
handicraftsmen, who dispersed over the world and explored all the
wastes and wolds and tracts and holds. At last they came to an
uninhabited spot, a vast and fair open plain clear of sand hills and
mountains, with founts flushing and rivers rushing, and they said,
'This is the manner of place the King commanded us to seek and ordered
us to find.' So they busied themselves in building the city even as
bade them Shaddad, King of the whole earth in its length and
breadth, leading the fountains in channels and laying the
foundations after the prescribed fashion. Moreover, all the kings of
earth's several reigns sent thither jewels and precious stones and
pearls large and small and carnelian and refined gold and virgin
silver upon camels by land, and in great ships over the waters, and
there came to the builders' hands of all these materials so great a
quantity as may neither be told nor counted nor conceived.

"So they labored at the work three hundred years, and when they
had brought it to end, they went to King Shaddad and acquainted him
therewith. Then said he: 'Depart and make thereon an impregnable
castle, rising and towering high in air, and build around it a
thousand pavilions, each upon a thousand columns of chrysolite and
ruby and vaulted with gold, that in each pavilion a wazir may
dwell.' So they returned forthwith and did this in other twenty years,
after which they again presented themselves before King Shaddad and
informed him of the accomplishment of his will. Then he commanded
his wazirs, who were a thousand in number, and his chief officers
and such of his troops and others as he put trust in, to prepare for
departure and removal to Many-columned Iram, in the suite and at the
stirrup of Shaddad, son of Ad, King of the world, and he bade also
such as he would of his women and his harem and of his handmaids and
eunuchs make them ready for the journey.

"They spent twenty years in preparing for departure, at the end of
which time Shaddad set out with his host, rejoicing in the
attainment of his desire till there remained but one day's journey
between him and Iram of the Pillars. Then Allah sent down on him and
on the stubborn unbelievers with him a mighty rushing sound from the
Heavens of His power, which destroyed them all with its vehement
clamor, and neither Shaddad nor any of his company set eyes on the
city. Moreover, Allah blotted out the road which led to the city,
and it stands in its stead unchanged until the Resurrection Day and
the Hour of Judgment."

So Mu'awiyah wondered greatly at Ka'ab al-Ahbar's story, and said to
him, "Hath any mortal ever made his way to that city?" He replied,
"Yes, one of the companions of Mohammed (on whom be blessing and
peace!) reached it, doubtless and for sure after the same fashion as
this man here seated." And (quoth Al-Sha'abi) it is related, on the
authority of learned men of Himyar in Al-Yaman that Shaddad, when
destroyed with all his host by the sound, was succeeded in his
kingship by his son Shaddad the Less, whom he left viceregent in
Hazramaut and Saba when he and his marched upon Many-columned Iram.
Now as soon as he heard of his father's death on the road, he caused
his body to be brought back from the desert to Hazramaut and bade them
hew him out a tomb in a cave, where he laid the body on a throne of
gold and threw over the corpse threescore and ten robes of cloth of
gold, purfled with precious stones. Lastly at his sire's head he set
up a tablet of gold whereon were graven these verses:

      Take warning O proud,
      And in length o' life vain!
      I'm Shaddad son of Ad,
      Of the forts castellain,
      Lord of pillars and power,
      Lord of tried might and main,
      Whom all earth sons obeyed
      For my mischief and bane,
      And who held East and West
      In mine awfulest reign.
      He preached me salvation
      Whom God did assain,
      But we crossed him and asked,
      "Can no refuge be ta'en?"
      When a Cry on us cried
      From th' horizon plain,
      And we fell on the field
      Like the harvested grain,
      And the Fixt Day await
      We, in earth's bosom lain!

Al-Sa'alibi also relateth: It chanced that two men once entered this
cave and found steps at its upper end, so they descended and came to
an underground chamber, a hundred cubits long by forty wide and a
hundred high. In the midst stood a throne of gold, whereon lay a man
of huge bulk, filling the whole length and breadth of the throne. He
was covered with jewels and raiment gold-and-silver wrought, and at
his head was a tablet of gold bearing an inscription. So they took the
tablet and carried it off, together with as many bars of gold and
silver and so forth as they could bear away.

And men also relate the tale of

              THE SWEEP AND THE NOBLE LADY


DURING the season of the Meccan pilgrimage, whilst the people were
making circuit about the Holy House and the place of compassing was
crowded, behold, a man laid hold of the covering of the Ka'aba and
cried out from the bottom of his heart, saying, "I beseech thee, O
Allah, that she may once again be wroth with her husband and that I
may know her!" A company of the pilgrims heard him and seized him
and carried him to the Emir of the pilgrims, after a sufficiency of
blows, and, said they, "O Emir, we found this fellow in the Holy
Places, saying thus and thus." So the Emir commanded to hang him,
but he cried, "O Emir, I conjure thee, by the virtue of the Apostle
(whom Allah bless and preserve!), hear my story and then do with me as
thou wilt." Quoth the Emir, "Tell thy tale forthright."

"Know then, O Emir," quoth the man, "that I am a sweep who works
in the sheep slaughterhouses and carries off the blood and the offal
to the rubbish heaps outside the gates. And it came to pass as I
went along one day with my ass loaded, I saw the people running away
and one of them said to me, 'Enter this alley, lest haply they slay
thee.' Quoth I, 'What aileth the folk running away?' and one of the
eunuchs who were passing said to me, 'This is the harem of one of
the notables, and her eunuchs drive the people out of her way and beat
them all, without respect to persons.' So I turned aside with the
donkey and stood still awaiting the dispersal of the crowd, and I
saw a number of eunuchs with staves in their hands, followed by nigh
thirty women slaves, and amongst them a lady as she were a willow wand
or a thirsty gazelle, perfect in beauty and grace and amorous languor,
and all were attending upon her.

"Now when she came to the mouth of the passage where I stood, she
turned right and left and calling one of the castratos, whispered in
his ear, and behold, he came up to me and laid hold of me, whilst
another eunuch took my ass and made off with it. And when the
spectators fled, the first eunuch bound me with a rope and dragged
me after him, till I knew not what to do, and the people followed us
and cried out, saying: 'This is not allowed of Allah! What hath this
poor scavenger done that he should be bound with ropes?' and praying
the eunuchs, 'Have pity on him and let him go, so Allah have pity on
you!' And I the while said in my mind: 'Doubtless the eunuchry
seized me because their mistress smelt the stink of the offal and it
sickened her. Belike she is with child or ailing, but there is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"

"So I continued walking on behind them till they stopped at the door
of a great house, and, entering before me, brought me into a big
hall- I know not how I shall describe its magnificence- furnished with
the finest furniture. And the women also entered the hall, and I bound
and held by the eunuch and saying to myself, 'Doubtless they will
torture me here till I die and none know of my death.' However,
after a while they carried me into a neat bathroom leading out of
the hall, and as I sat there, behold, in came three slave girls, who
seated themselves round me and said to me, 'Strip off thy rags and
tatters.' So I pulled off my threadbare clothes and one of them fell
a-rubbing my legs and feet whilst another scrubbed my head and a third
shampooed my body. When they had made an end of washing me, they
brought me a parcel of clothes and said to me, 'Put these on,' and I
answered, 'By Allah, I know not how!' So they came up to me and
dressed me, laughing together at me the while. After which they
brought casting bottles full of rose-water, and sprinkled me
therewith.

"Then I went out with them into another saloon- by Allah, I know
not how to praise its splendor for the wealth of paintings and
furniture therein- and entering it, I saw a person seated on a couch
of Indian rattan with ivory feet, and before her a number of damsels.
When she saw me, she rose to me and called me, so I went up to her and
she seated me by her side. Then she bade her slave girls bring food,
and they brought all manner of rich meats, such as I never saw in
all my life. I do not even know the names of the dishes, much less
their nature. So I ate my fill, and when the dishes had been taken
away and we had washed our hands, she called for fruits, which came
without stay or delay, and ordered me eat of them. And when we had
ended eating she bade one of the waiting women bring the wine
furniture. So they set on flagons of divers kinds of wine and burned
perfumes in all the censers, what while a damsel like the moon rose
and served us with wine to the sound of the smitten strings. And I
drank, and the lady drank, till we were swized with wine and the whole
time I doubted not but that all this was an illusion of sleep.

"Presently, she signed to one of the damsels to spread us a bed in
such a place, which being done, she rose and took me by the hand and
led me thither, and lay down and I lay with her till the morning,
and as often as I pressed her to my breast I smelt the delicious
fragrance of musk and other perfumes that exaled from her, and could
not think otherwise but that I was in Paradise, or in the vain
phantasies of a dream. Now when it was day, she asked me where I
lodged and I told her, 'In such a place,' whereupon she gave me
leave to depart, handing to me a kerchief worked with gold and
silver and containing somewhat tied in it, and took leave of me,
saying, 'Go to the bath with this.' I rejoiced and said to myself, 'If
there be but five coppers here, it will buy me this day my morning
meal.'

"Then I left her, as though I were leaving Paradise, and returned to
my poor crib, where I opened the kerchief and found in it fifty
miskals of gold. So I buried them in the ground and, buying two
farthings' worth of bread and "kitchen," seated me at the door and
broke my fast. After which I sat pondering my case, and continued so
doing till the time of afternoon prayer, when lo! a slave girl
accosted me saying, 'My mistress calleth for thee.' I followed her
to the house aforesaid and, after asking permission, she carried me
into the lady, before whom I kissed the ground, and she commanded me
to sit and called for meat and wine as on the previous day. After
which I again lay with her all night. On the morrow, she gave me a
second kerchief, with other fifty dinars therein, and I took it and,
going home, buried this also. In such pleasant condition I continued
eight days running, going in to her at the hour of afternoon prayer
and leaving her at daybreak, but on the eighth night, as I lay with
her, behold, one of her slave girls came running in and said to me,
'Arise, go up into yonder closet.'

"So I rose and went into the closet, which was over the gate, and
presently I heard a great clamor and tramp of horse, and, looking
out of the window which gave on the street in front of the house, I
saw a young man as he were the rising moon on the night of fullness
come riding up attended by a number of servants and soldiers who
were about him on foot. He alighted at the door and entering the
saloon, found the lady seated on the couch. So he kissed the ground
between her hands, then came up to her and kissed her hands, but she
would not speak to him. However, he continued patiently to humble
himself, and soothe her and speak her fair, till he made his peace
with her, and they lay together that night. Now when her husband had
made his peace with the young lady, he lay with her that night, and
next morning the soldiers came for him and he mounted and rode away,
whereupon she drew near to me and said, 'Sawest thou yonder man?' I
answered, 'Yes,' and she said, 'He is my husband, and I will tell thee
what befell me with him.'

"It came to pass one, day that we were sitting, he and I, in the
garden within the house, and behold, he rose from my side and was
absent a long while, till I grew tired of waiting and said to
myself, 'Most like, he is in the privy.' So I arose and went to the
watercloset, but not finding him there, went down to the kitchen,
where I saw a slave girl, and when I enquired for him, she showed
him to me lying with one of the cookmaids. Hereupon I swore a great
oath that I assuredly would do adultery with the foulest and filthiest
man in Baghdad, and the day the eunuch laid hands on thee, I had
been four days going round about the city in quest of one who should
answer to this description, but found none fouler nor filthier than
thy good self. So I took thee and there passed between us that which
Allah foreordained to us, and now I am quit of my oath.'

"Then she added, 'If, however, my husband return yet a pin to the
cookmaid and lie with her, I will restore thee to thy lost place in my
favors.' Now when I heard these words from her lips, what while she
pierced my heart with the shafts of her glances, my tears streamed
forth till my eyelids were chafed sore with weeping. Then she made
them give me other fifty dinars (making in all four hundred gold
pieces I had of her) and bade me depart. So I went out from her and
came hither, that I might pray Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) to
make her husband return to the cookmaid, that haply I might be again
admitted to her favors."

When the Emir of the pilgrims heard the man's story, he set him free
and said to the bystanders, "Allah upon you, pray for him, for
indeed he is excusable."

   THE MAN WHO STOLE THE DISH OF GOLD WHEREIN THE DOG ATE


SOME time erst there was a man who had accumulated debts, and his
case was straitened upon him so that he left his people and family and
went forth in distraction, and he ceased not wandering on at random
till he came after a time to a city tall of walls and firm of
foundations. He entered it in a state of despondency and despair,
harried by hunger and worn with the weariness of his way. As he passed
through one of the main streets, he saw a company of the great going
along, so he followed them till they reached a house like to a royal
palace. He entered with them, and they stayed not faring forward
till they came in presence of a person seated at the upper end of a
saloon, a man of the most dignified and majestic aspect, surrounded by
pages and eunuchs, as he were of the sons of the wazirs. When he saw
the visitors, he rose to greet them and received them with honor,
but the poor man aforesaid was confounded at his own boldness when
beholding the goodliness of the place and the crowd of servants and
attendants, so drawing back in perplexity and fear for his life, sat
down apart in a place afar off, where none should see him.

Now it chanced that whilst he was sitting, behold, in came a man
with four sporting dogs, whereon were various kinds of raw silk and
brocade and wearing round their necks collars of gold with chains of
silver, and tied up each dog in a place set privy for him. After which
he went out and presently returned with four dishes of gold, full of
rich meats, which he set severally before the dogs, one for each. Then
he went away and left them, whilst the poor man began to eye the
food for stress of hunger, and longed to go up to one of the dogs
and eat with him. But fear of them withheld him. Presently, one of the
dogs looked at him and Allah Almighty inspired the dog with a
knowledge of his case, so he drew back from the platter and signed
to the man, who came and ate till he was filled. Then he would have
withdrawn, but the dog again signed to him to take for himself the
dish and what food was left in it, and pushed it toward him with his
forepaw. So the man took the dish and leaving the house, went his way,
and none followed him.

Then he journeyed to another city, where he sold the dish and buying
with the price a stock in trade, returned to his own town. There he
sold his goods and paid his debts, and he throve and became affluent
and rose to perfect prosperity. He abode in his own land, but after
some years had passed he said to himself, "Needs must I repair to
the city of the owner of the dish, and carry him a fit and handsome
present and pay him the money value of that which his dog bestowed
upon me." So he took the price of the dish and a suitable gift, and
setting out, journeyed day and night till he came to that city. He
entered it and sought the place where the man lived, but he found
there naught save ruins moldering in row and croak of crow, and
house and home desolate and all conditions in changed state. At
this, his heart and soul were troubled, and he repeated the saying
of him who saith:

   "Void are the private rooms of treasury.
   As void were hearts of fear and piety.
   Changed is the wady, nor are its gazelles
   Those fawns, nor sand hills those I wont to see."

Now when the man saw these moldering ruins and witnessed what the
hand of time had manifestly done with the place, leaving but traces of
the substantial things that erewhiles had been, a little reflection
made it needless for him to inquire of the case, so he turned away.
Presently, seeing a wretched man, in a plight which made him shudder
and feel goose skin, and which would have moved the very rock to ruth,
he said to him: "Ho, thou! What have time and fortune done with the
lord of this place? Where are his lovely faces, his shining full moons
and splendid stars? And what is the cause of the ruin that is come
upon his abode, so that nothing save the walls thereof remain?"
Quoth the other: "He is the miserable thou seest mourning that which
hath left him naked. But knowest thou not the words of the Apostle
(whom Allah bless and keep!), wherein is a lesson to him who will
learn by it and a warning to whoso will be warned thereby and guided
in the right way, 'Verily it is the way of Allah Almighty to raise
up nothing of this world, except He cast it down again'?

"If thou question of the cause of this accident, indeed it is no
wonder, considering the chances and changes of Fortune. I was the lord
of this place and I builded it and founded it and owned it, and I
was the proud possessor of its full moons lucent and its
circumstance resplendent and its damsels radiant and its garniture
magnificent, but Time turned and did away from me wealth and
servants and took from me what it had lent (not given), and brought
upon me calamities which it held in store hidden. But there must needs
be some reason for this thy question, so tell it me and leave
wondering."

Thereupon the man who had waxed wealthy, being sore concerned,
told him the whole story, and added: "I have brought thee a present,
such as souls desire, and the price of thy dish of gold which I
took; for it was the cause of my affluence after poverty, and of the
replenishment of my dwelling place after desolation, and of the
dispersion of my trouble and straitness." But the man shook his head
and weeping and groaning and complaining of his lot, answered: "Ho,
thou! Methinks thou art mad, for this is not the way of a man of
sense. How should a dog of mine make generous gift to thee of a dish
of gold and I meanly take back the price of what a dog gave? This were
indeed a strange thing! Were I in extremest unease and misery, by
Allah, I would not accept of thee aught- no, not the worth of a nail
paring! So return whence thou camest in health and safety."
Whereupon the merchant kissed his feet and taking leave of him,
returned whence he came, praising him and reciting this couplet:

   "Men and dogs together are all gone by,
   So peace be with all of them, dogs and men!"

And Allah is All-knowing!

Again men tell the tale of

    THE RUINED MAN WHO BECAME RICH AGAIN THROUGH A DREAM


THERE lived once in Baghdad a wealthy man and made of money, who
lost all his substance and became so destitute that he could earn
his living only by hard labor. One night he lay down to sleep dejected
and heavyhearted, and saw in a dream a speaker who said to him,
"Verily thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither and seek it." So he set
out for Cairo, but when he arrived there, evening overtook him and
he lay down to sleep in a mosque. Presently, by decree of Allah
Almighty a band of bandits entered the mosque and made their way
thence into an adjoining house, but the owners, being aroused by the
noise of the thieves, awoke and cried out. Whereupon the Chief of
Police came to their aid with his officers.

The robbers made off, but the Wali entered the mosque, and finding
the man from Baghdad asleep there, laid hold of him and beat him
with palm rods so grievous a beating that he was well-nigh dead.
Then they cast him into jail, where he abode three days, after which
the Chief of Police sent for him and asked him, "Whence art thou?" and
he answered, "From Baghdad." Quoth the Wali, "And what brought thee to
Cairo?" and quoth the Baghdadi, "I saw in a dream One who said to
me, 'Thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither to it.' But when I came to
Cairo the fortune which he promised me proved to be the palm rods thou
so generously gavest to me."

The Wali laughed till he showed his wisdom teeth and said, "O man of
little wit, thrice have I seen in a dream one who said to me: 'There
is in Baghdad a house in such a district and of such a fashion and its
courtyard is laid out gardenwise, at the lower end whereof is a
jetting fountain and under the same a great sum of money lieth buried.
Go thither and take it.' Yet I went not, but thou, of the briefness of
thy wit, hast journeyed from place to place on the faith of a dream,
which was but an idle galimatias of sleep."

Then he gave him money, saying, "Help thee back herewith to thine
own country," and he took the money and set out upon his homeward
march. Now the house the Wali had described was the man's own house in
Baghdad, so the wayfarer returned thither and, digging underneath
the fountain in his garden, discovered a great treasure. And thus
Allah gave him abundant fortune, and a marvelous coincidence occurred.

And a story is also current of

                     THE EBONY HORSE


THERE was once in times of yore and ages long gone before, a great
and puissant King, of the kings of the Persians, Sabur by name, who
was the richest of all the kings in store of wealth and dominion and
surpassed each and every in wit and wisdom. He was generous,
openhanded and beneficent, and he gave to those who sought him and
repelled not those who resorted to him, and he comforted the
brokenhearted and honorably entreated those who fled to him for
refuge. Moreover, he loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers
and did the oppressed justice upon the oppressor. He had three
daughters, like full moons of shining light or flower gardens blooming
bright, and a son as he were the moon. And it was his wont to keep two
festivals in the twelvemonth, those of the Nau-Roz, or New Year, and
Mihrgan, the Autumnal Equinox, on which occasions he threw open his
palaces and gave largess and made proclamation of safety and
security and promoted his chamberlains and viceroys. And the people of
his realm came in to him and saluted him and gave him joy of the
holy day, bringing him gifts and servants and eunuchs.

Now he loved science and geometry, and one festival day as he sat on
his kingly throne there came in to him three wise men, cunning
artificers and past masters in all manner of craft and inventions,
skilled in making things curious and rare, such as confound the wit,
and versed in the knowledge of occult truths and perfect in
mysteries and subtleties. And they were of three different tongues and
countries: the first a Hindi or Indian, the second a Roumi or Greek,
and the third a Farsi or Persian. The Indian came forward and,
prostrating himself before the King, wished him joy of the festival
and laid before him a present befitting his dignity; that is to say, a
man of gold, set with precious gems and jewels of price and hending in
hand a golden trumpet. When Sabur saw this, he asked, "O sage, what is
the virtue of this figure?" and the Indian answered: "O my lord, if
this figure be set at the gate of thy city, it will be a guardian over
it; for if an enemy enter the place, it will blow this clarion against
him and he will be seized with a palsy and drop down dead." Much the
King marveled at this and cried, "By Allah, O sage, an this thy word
be true, I will grant thee thy wish and thy desire."

Then came forward the Greek and, prostrating himself before the
King, presented him with a basin of silver in whose midst was a
peacock of gold, surrounded by four and twenty chicks of the same
metal. Sabur looked at them and turning to the Greek, said to him,
"O sage, what is the virtue of this peacock?" "O my lord," answered
he, "as often as an hour of the day or night passeth, it pecketh one
of its young and crieth out and flappeth its wing, till the four and
twenty hours are accomplished. And when the month cometh to an end, it
will open its mouth and thou shalt see the crescent therein." And
the King said, "An thou speak sooth, I will bring thee to thy wish and
thy desire."

Then came forward the Persian sage and, prostrating himself before
the King, presented him with a horse of the blackest ebony wood inlaid
with gold and jewels, and ready harnessed with saddle, bridle, and
stirrups such as befit kings, which when Sabur saw, he marveled with
exceeding marvel and was confounded at the beauty of its form and
the ingenuity of its fashion. So he asked, "What is the use of this
horse of wood, and what is its virtue and what the secret of its
movement?" and the Persian answered, "O my lord, the virtue of this
horse is that if one mount him, it will carry him whither he will
and fare with its rider through the air and cover the space of a
year in a single day."

The King marveled and was amazed at these three wonders, following
thus hard upon one another on the same day, and turning to the sage,
said to him: "By Allah the Omnipotent, and our Lord the Beneficent,
who created all creatures and feedeth them with meat and drink, an thy
speech be veritable and the virtue of thy contrivance appear, I will
assuredly give thee whatsoever thou lustest for and will bring thee to
thy desire and thy wish!" Then he entertained the sages three days,
that he might make trial of their gifts, after which they brought
the figures before him and each took the creature he had wroughten and
showed him the mystery of its movement. The trumpeter blew the
trump, the peacock pecked its chicks, and the Persian sage mounted the
ebony horse, whereupon it soared with him high in air and descended
again. When King Sabur saw all this, he was amazed and perplexed and
felt like to fly for joy and said to the three sages: "Now I am
certified of the truth of your words and it behooveth me to quit me of
my promise. Ask ye, therefore, what ye will, and I will give you
that same."

Now the report of the King's daughters had reached the sages, so
they answered: "If the King be content with us and accept of our gifts
and allow us to prefer a request to him, we crave of him that he
give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be his
sons-inlaw, for that the stability of kings may not be gainsaid."
Quoth the King, "I grant you that which you wish and you desire,"
and bade summon the kazi forthright, that he might marry each of the
sages to one of his daughters. Now it fortuned that the Princesses
were behind a curtain, looking on, and when they heard this, the
youngest considered her husband-to-be and behold, he was an old man, a
hundred years of age, with hair frosted, forehead drooping, eyebrows
mangy, ears slitten, beard and mustachios stained and dyed, eyes red
and goggle, cheeks bleached and hollow, flabby nose like a brinjall or
eggplant, face like a cobblees apron, teeth overlapping and lips
like camel's kidneys, loose and pendulous- in brief, a terror, a
horror, a monster, for he was of the folk of his time the unsightliest
and of his age the frightfulest. Sundry of his grinders had been
knocked out and his eyeteeth were like the tusks of the Jinni who
frighteneth poultry in henhouses.

Now the girl was the fairest and most graceful of her time, more
elegant than the gazelle, however tender, than the gentlest zephyr
blander, and brighter than the moon at her full, for amorous fray
right suitable, confounding in graceful sway the waving bough and
outdoing in swimming gait the pacing roe,- in fine, she was fairer
and sweeter by far than all her sisters. So when she saw her suitor,
she went to her chamber and strewed dust on her head and tore her
clothes and fell to buffeting her face and weeping and walling. Now
the Prince, her brother, Kamar al-Akmar, or the Moon of Moons hight,
was then newly returned from a journey and, hearing her weeping and
crying, came in to her (for he loved her with fond affection, more
than his other sisters) and asked her: "What aileth thee? What hath
befallen thee? Tell me, and conceal naught from me." So she smote
her breast and answered: "O my brother and my dear one, I have nothing
to hide. If the palace be straitened upon thy father, I will go out,
and if he be resolved upon a foul thing, I will separate myself from
him, though he consent not to make provision for me, and my Lord
will provide." Quoth he, "Tell me what meaneth this talk and what hath
straitened thy breast and troubled thy temper." "O my brother and my
dear one," answered the Princess, "know that my father hath promised
me in marriage to a wicked magician who brought him as a gift a
horse of black wood, and hath bewitched him with his craft and his
egromancy. But as for me, I will none of him, and would, because of
him, I had never come into this world!"

Her brother soothed her and solaced her, then fared to his sire
and said: "What be this wizard to whom thou hast given my youngest
sister in marriage, and what is this present which he hast brought
thee, so that thou hast killed my sister with chagrin? It is not right
that this should be." Now the Persian was standing by, and when he
heard the Prince's words, he was mortified and filled with fury, and
the King said, "O my son, an thou sawest this horse, thy wit would
be confounded and thou wouldst be amated with amazement." Then he bade
the slaves bring the horse before him and they did so, and, when the
Prince saw it, it pleased him. So (being an accomplished cavalier)
he mounted it forthright and struck its sides with the shovelshaped
stirrup irons. But it stirred not, and the King said to the sage,
"Go show him its movement, that he also may help thee to win thy
wish."

Now the Persian bore the Prince a grudge because he willed not he
should have his sister, so he showed him the pin of ascent on the
right side of the horse and saying to him, "Trill this," left him.
Thereupon the Prince trilled the pin and lo! the horse forthwith
soared with him high in ether, as it were a bird, and gave not over
flying till it disappeared from men's espying, whereat the King was
troubled and perplexed about his case and said to the Persian, "O
Sage, look how thou mayst make him descend." But he replied, "O my
lord, I can do nothing, and thou wilt never see him again till
Resurrection Day, for he, of his ignorance and pride, asked me not
of the pin of descent, and I forgot to acquaint him therewith." When
the King heard this, he was enraged with sore rage, and bade bastinado
the sorcerer and clap him in jail, whilst he himself cast the crown
from his head and beat his face and smote his breast. Moreover, he
shut the doors of his palaces and gave himself up to weeping and
keening, he and his wife and daughters and all the folk of the city,
and thus their joy was turned to annoy and their gladness changed into
sore affliction and sadness.

Thus far concerning them, but as regards the Prince, the horse
gave not over soaring with him till he drew near the sun, whereat he
gave himself up for lost and saw death in the sides, and was
confounded at his case, repenting him of having mounted the horse
and saying to himself: "Verily, this was a device of the sage to
destroy me on account of my youngest sister. But there is no Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I am
lost without recourse, but I wonder, did not he who made the ascent
pin make also a descent pin?" Now he was a man of wit and knowledge
and intelligence, so he fell to feeling all the parts of the horse,
but saw nothing save a screw like a cock's head on its right
shoulder and the like on the left, when quoth he to himself, "I see no
sip save these things like button."

Presently he turned the right-hand pin, whereupon the horse flew
heavenward with increased speed. So he left it, and looking at the
sinister shoulder and finding another pin, he wound it up and
immediately the steed's upward motion slowed and ceased and it began
to descend, little by little, toward the face of the earth, while
the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life. And when
he saw this and knew the uses of the horse, his heart was filled
with joy and gladness and he thanked Almighty Allah for that He had
deigned deliver him from destruction. Then he began to turn the
horse's head whithersoever he would, making it rise and fall at
pleasure, till he had gotten complete mastery over its every movement.
He ceased not to descend the whole of that day, for that the steed's
ascending flight had borne him afar from the earth, and as he
descended, he diverted himself with viewing the various cities and
countries over which he passed and which he knew not, never having
seen them in his life.

Amongst the rest, he decried a city ordered after the fairest
fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and
streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains, whereat he
fell a-musing and said to himself, "Would I knew the name of yon
town and in what land it is!" And he took to circling about it and
observing it right and left. By this time, the day began to decline
and the sun drew near to its downing, and he said in his mind, "Verily
I find no goodlier place to night in than this city, so I will lodge
here, and early on the morrow I will return to my kith and kin and
my kingdom and tell my father and family what hath passed and acquaint
him with what mine eyes have seen.

Then he addressed himself to seeking a place wherein he might safely
bestow himself and his horse and where none should descry him, and
presently, behold, he espied a-middlemost of the city a palace
rising high in upper air surrounded by a great wall with lofty
crenelles and battlements, guarded by forty black slaves clad in
complete mail and armed with spears and swords, bows and arrows. Quoth
he, "This is a goodly place," and turned the descent pin, whereupon
the horse sank down with him like a weary bird, and alighted gently on
the terrace roof of the palace. So the Prince dismounted and
ejaculating "Alhamdolillah- praise be to Allah," he began to go round
about the horse and examine it, saying: "By Allah, he who fashioned
thee with these perfections was a cunning craftsman, and if the
Almighty extend the term of my life and restore me to my country and
kinsfolk in safety and reunite me with my father, I will assuredly
bestow upon him all manner bounties and benefit him with the utmost
beneficence."

By this time night had overtaken him and he sat on the roof till
he was assured that all in the palace slept, and indeed hunger and
thirst were sore upon him for that he had not tasted food nor drunk
water since he parted from his sire. So he said within himself,
"Surely the like of this palace will not lack of victual," and,
leaving the horse above, went down in search of somewhat to eat.
Presently he came to a staircase and, descending it to the bottom,
found himself in a court paved with white marble and alabaster,
which shone in the light of the moon. He marveled at the place and the
goodliness of its fashion, but sensed no sound of speaker and saw no
living soul and stood in perplexed surprise, looking right and left
and knowing not whither he should wend. Then said he to himself, "I
may not do better than return to where I left my horse and pass the
night by it, and as soon as day shall dawn I will mount and ride
away."

However, as he tarried talking to himself, he espied a light
within the palace, and making toward it, found that it came from a
candle that stood before a door of the harem, at the head of a
sleeping eunuch, as he were one of the Ifrits of Solomon or a
tribesman of the Jinn, longer than lumber and broader than a bench. He
lay before the door, with the pommel of his sword gleaming in the
flame of the candle, and at his head was a bag of leather hanging from
a column of granite. When the Prince saw this, he was affrighted and
said, "I crave help from Allah the Supreme! O mine Holy One, even as
Thou hast already delivered me from destruction, so vouchsafe me
strength to quit myself of the adventure of this palace!" So saying,
he put out his hand to the budget and taking it, carried it aside
and opened it and found in it food of the best.

He ate his fill and refreshed himself and drank water, after which
he hung up the provision bag in its place and drawing the eunuch's
sword from its sheath, took it, whilst the slave slept on, knowing not
whence Destiny should come to him. Then the Prince fared forward
into the palace and ceased not till he came to a second door, with a
curtain drawn before it. So he raised the curtain and, behold, on
entering he saw a couch of the whitest ivory inlaid with pearls and
jacinths and jewels, and four slave girls sleeping about it. He went
up to the couch, to see what was thereon, and found a young lady lying
asleep, chemised with her hair as she were the full moon rising over
the eastern horizon, with flower-white brow and shining hair parting
and cheeks like blood-red anemones, and dainty moles thereon. He was
amazed at her as she lay in her beauty and loveliness, her symmetry
and grace, and he recked no more of death.

So he went up to her, trembling in every nerve, and, shuddering with
pleasure, kissed her on the right cheek, whereupon she awoke
forthright and opened her eyes, and seeing the Prince standing at
her head, said to him, "Who art thou, and whence comest thou?" Quoth
he, "I am thy slave and thy lover." Asked she, "And who brought thee
hither?" and he answered, "My Lord and my fortune." Then said Shams
al-Nahar (for such was her name) "Haply thou art he who demanded me
yesterday of my father in marriage and he rejected thee, pretending
that thou wast foul of favor. By Allah, my sire lied in his throat
when he spoke this thing, for thou art not other than beautiful."
Now the son of the King of Hind had sought her in marriage, but her
father had rejected him for that he was ugly and uncouth, and she
thought the Prince was he. So when she saw his beauty and grace (for
indeed he was like the radiant moon) the syntheism of love gat hold of
her heart as it were a flaming fire, and they fell to talk and
converse.

Suddenly, her waiting women awoke and, seeing the Prince with
their mistress, said to her, "O my lady, who is this with thee?" Quoth
she: "I know not. I found him sitting by me when I woke up. Haply 'tis
he who seeketh me in marriage of my sire." Quoth they, "O my lady,
by Allah the All-Father, this is not he who seeketh thee in
marriage, for he is hideous and this man is handsome and of high
degree. Indeed, the other is not fit to be his servant." Then the
handmaidens went out to the eunuch, and finding him slumbering,
awoke him, and he started up in alarm. Said they, "How happeth it that
thou art on guard at the palace and yet men come in to us whilst we
are asleep?" When the black heard this, he sprang in haste to his
sword, but found it not, and fear took him, and trembling. Then he
went in, confounded, to his mistress and seeing the Prince sitting
at talk with her, said to him, "O my lord, art thou man or Jinni?"
Replied the Prince: "Woe to thee, O unluckiest of slaves. How darest
thou even the sons of the royal Chosroes with one of the unbelieving
Satans?" And he was as a raging lion.

Then he took the sword in his hand and said to the slave, "I am
the King's son-in-law, and he hath married me to his daughter and
bidden me go in to her." And when the eunuch heard these words he
replied, "O my lord, if thou be indeed of kind a man as thou
avouchest, she is fit for none but for thee, and thou art worthier
of her than any other." Thereupon the eunuch ran to the King,
shrieking loud and rending his raiment and heaving dust upon his head.
And when the King heard his outcry, he said to him: "What hath
befallen thee? Speak quickly and be brief, for thou hast fluttered
my heart." Answered the eunuch, "O King, come to thy daughter's
succor, for a devil of the Jinn, in the likeness of a King's son
hath got possession of her, so up and at him!"

When the King heard this, he thought to kill him and said, "How
camest thou to be careless of my daughter and let this demon come at
her?" Then he betook himself to the Princess's palace, where he
found her slave women standing to await him, and asked them, "What
is come to my daughter?" "O King," answered they, "slumber overcame us
and when we awoke, we found a young man sitting upon her couch in talk
with her, as he were the full moon. Never saw we aught fairer of favor
than he. So we questioned him of his case and he declared that thou
hadst given him thy daughter in marriage. More than this we know
not, nor do we know if he be a man or a Jinni, but he is modest and
well-bred, and doth nothing unseemly or which leadeth to disgrace."

Now when the King heard these words, his wrath cooled, and he raised
the curtain little by little and looking in, saw sitting at talk
with his daughter a Prince of the goodliest, with a face like the full
moon for sheen. At this sight he could not contain himself, of his
jealousy for his daughter's honor, and putting aside the curtain,
rushed in upon them drawn sword in hand like a furious Ghul. Now
when the Prince saw him he asked the Princess, "Is this thy sire?" and
she answered, "Yes." Whereupon he sprang, to his feet and, seizing his
sword, cried out at the King with so terrible a cry that he was
confounded. Then the youth would have fallen on him with the sword,
but the King, seeing that the Prince was doughtier than he, sheathed
his scimitar and stood till the young man came up to him, when he
accosted him courteously and said to him, "O youth, art thou a man
or a Jinni?" Quoth the Prince: "Did I not respect thy right as mine
host and thy daughter's honor, I would spill thy blood! How darest
thou fellow me with devils, me that am a Prince of the sons of the
royal Chosroes, who, had they wished to take thy kingdom, could
shake thee like an earthquake from thy glory and thy dominions, and
spoil thee of all thy possessions?"

Now when the King heard his words, he was confounded with awe and
bodily fear of him and rejoined: "If thou indeed be of the sons of the
Kings, as thou pretendest, how cometh it that thou enterest my
palace without my permission, and smirchest mine honor, making thy way
to my daughter and feigning that thou art her husband and claiming
that I have given her to thee to wife, I that have slain kings and
king's sons who sought her of me in marriage? And now who shall save
thee from my might and majesty when, if I cried out to my slaves and
servants and bade them put thee to the vilest of deaths, they would
slay thee forthright? Who shall deliver thee out of my hand?"

When the Prince heard this speech of the King, he answered: "Verily,
I wonder at thee and at the shortness and denseness of thy wit! Say
me, canst covet for thy daughter a mate comelier than myself, and hast
ever seen a stouter-hearted man or one better fitted for a Sultan or a
more glorious in rank and dominion than I?" Rejoined the King: "Nay,
by Allah! But I would have had thee, O youth, act after the custom
of kings and demand her from me to wife before witnesses, that I might
have married her to thee publicly. And now, even were I to marry her
to thee privily, yet hast thou dishonored me in her person."
Rejoined the Prince: "Thou sayest sooth, O King, but if thou summon
thy slaves and thy soldiers and they fall upon me and slay me, as thou
pretendest, thou wouldst but publish thine own disgrace, and the
folk would be divided between belief in thee and disbelief in thee.
Wherefore, O King, thou wilt do well, meseemeth, to turn from this
thought to that which I shall counsel thee." Quoth the King, "Let me
hear what thou hast to advise," and quoth the Prince:

"What I have to propose to thee is this: Either do thou meet me in
combat singular, I and thou, and he who slayeth his adversary shall be
held the worthier and having a better title to the kingdom; or else
let me be this night, and whenas dawns the morn, draw out against me
thy horsemen and footmen and servants, but first tell me their
number." Said the King, "They are forty thousand horse, besides my own
slaves and their followers, who are the like of them in number."
Thereupon said the Prince: "When the day shall break, do thou array
them against me and say to them: 'This man is a suitor to me for my
daughter's hand, on condition that he shall do battle singlehanded
against you all; for he pretendeth that he will overcome you and put
you to the rout, and indeed that ye cannot prevail against him.' After
which, leave me to do battle with them. If they slay me, then is thy
secret the surer guarded and thine honor the better warded, and if I
overcome them and see their backs, then is it the like of me a king
should covet to his son-in-law."

So the King approved of his opinion and accepted his proposition,
despite his awe at the boldness of his speech and amaze at the
pretensions of the Prince to meet in fight his whole host, such as
he had described it to him, being at heart assured that he would
perish in the fray and so he should be quit of him and freed from
the fear of dishonor. Thereupon he called the eunuch and bade him go
to his Wazir without stay and delay and command him to assemble the
whole of the army and cause them don their arms and armor and mount
their steeds. So the eunuch carried the King's order to the
Minister, who straightway summoned the captains of the host and the
lords of the realm and bade them don their harness of derring-do and
mount horse and sally forth in battle array.

Such was their case, but as regards the King, he sat a long while
conversing with the young Prince, being pleased with his wise speech
and good sense and fine breeding. And when it was daybreak, he
returned to his palace and, seating himself on his throne, commanded
his merry men to mount, and bade them saddle one of the best of the
royal steeds with handsome selle and housings and trappings and
bring it to the Prince. But the youth said, "O King, I will not
mount horse till I come in view of the troops and review them." "Be it
as thou wilt," replied the King. Then the two repaired to the parade
ground where the troops were drawn up, and the young Prince looked
upon them and noted their great number. After which the King cried out
to them, saying: "Ho, all ye men, there is come to me a youth who
seeketh my daughter in marriage, and in very sooth never have I seen a
goodlier than he- no, nor a stouter of heart nor a doughtier of arm,
for he pretendeth that he can overcome you singlehanded, and force you
to flight and that, were ye a hundred thousand in number, yet for
him would ye be but few. Now when he chargeth down on you, do ye
receive him upon point of pike and sharp of saber, for indeed he
hath undertaken a mighty matter."

Then quoth the King to the Prince, "Up, O my son, and do thy
devoir on them." Answered he: "O King, thou dealest not justly and
fairly by me. How shall I go forth against them, seeing that I am
afoot and the men be mounted?" The King retorted, "I bade thee
mount, and thou refusedst, but choose thou which of my horses thou
wilt." Then he said, "Not one of thy horses pleaseth me, and I will
ride none but that on which I came." Asked the King, "And where is thy
horse?" "Atop of thy palace." "In what part of my palace?" "On the
roof." Now when the King heard these words, he cried: "Out on thee!
This is the first sip thou hast given of madness. How can the horse be
on the roof.? But we shall at once see if thou speak truth or lies."
Then he turned to one of his chief officers and said to him, "Go to my
palace and bring me what thou findest on the roof." So all the
people marveled at the young Prince's words, saying one to other, "How
can a horse come down the steps from the roof.? Verily this is a thing
whose like we never heard."

In the meantime the King's messenger repaired to the palace and,
mounting to the roof, found the horse standing there, and never had he
looked on a handsomer. But when he drew near and examined it, he saw
that it was made of ebony and ivory. Now the officer was accompanied
by other high officers, who also looked on, and they laughed to one
another, saying: "Was it of the like of this horse that the youth
spake? We cannot deem him other than mad. However, we shall soon see
the truth of his case. Peradventure herein is some mighty matter,
and he is a man of high degree." Then they lifted up the horse bodily,
carrying it to the King, set it down before him. And all the lieges
flocked round to look at it, marveling at the beauty of its
proportions and the richness of its saddle and bridle. The King also
admired it, and wondered at it with extreme wonder, and he asked the
Prince, "O youth, is this thy horse?" He answered, "Yes, O King,
this is my horse, and thou shalt soon see the marvel it showeth."
Rejoined the King, "Then take and mount it," and the Prince
retorted, "I will not mount till the troops withdraw afar from it."

So the King bade them retire a bowshot from the horse, whereupon
quoth its owner: "O King, see thou, I am about to mount my horse and
charge upon thy host and scatter them right and left and split their
hearts asunder." Said the King, "Do as thou wilt, and spare not
their lives, for they will not spare thine." Then the Prince
mounted, whilst the troops ranged themselves in ranks before him,
and one said to another, "When the youth cometh between the ranks,
we will take him on the points of our pikes and the sharps of our
sabers." Quoth another: "By Allah, this is a mere misfortune. How
shall we slay a youth so comely of face and shapely of form?" And a
third continued: "Ye will have hard work to get the better of him, for
the youth had not done this but for what he knew of his own prowess
and pre-eminence of valor."

Meanwhile, having settled himself in his saddle, the Prince turned
the pin of ascent whilst an eyes were strained to see what he would
do, whereupon the horse began to heave and rock and sway to and fro
and make the strangest of movements steed ever made, till its belly
was filled with air and it took flight with its rider and soared
high into the sky. When the King saw this, he cried out to his men,
saying: "Woe to you! Catch him, catch him, ere he 'scape you!" But his
Wazirs and viceroys said to him: "O King, can a man overtake the
flying bird? This is surely none but some mighty magician or Marid
of the, Jinn, or devil, and Allah save thee from him! So praise thou
the Almighty for deliverance of thee and of all thy host from his
hand."

Then the King returned to his palace after seeing the feat of the
Prince, and going in to his daughter, acquainted her with what had
befallen them both on the parade ground. He found her grievously
afflicted for the Prince and bewailing her separation from him,
wherefore she fell sick with violent sickness and took to her
pillow. Now when her father saw her on this wise, he pressed her to
his breast and kissing her between the eyes, said to her: "O my
daughter, praise Allah Almighty and thank Him for that He hath
delivered us from this crafty enchanter, this villian, this low
fellow, this thief who thought only of seducing thee!" And he repeated
to her the story of the Prince and how he had disappeared in the
firmament, and he abused him and cursed him, knowing not how dearly
his daughter loved him. But she paid no heed to his words and did
but redouble in her tears and wails, saying to herself, "By Allah, I
will neither eat meat nor drain drink till Allah reunite me with him!"
Her father was greatly concerned for her case and mourned much over
her plight, but for all he could do to soothe her, love longing only
increased on her.

Thus far concerning the King and Princess Shams al-Nahar, but as
regards Prince Kamar al-Akmar, when he had risen high in air, he
turned his horse's head toward his native land, and being alone, mused
upon the beauty of the Princess and her loveliness. Now he had
inquired of the King's people the name of the city and of its King and
his daughter, and men had told him that it was the city of Sana'a.
So he journeyed with all speed till he drew near his father's
capital and, making an airy circuit about the city, alighted on the
roof of the King's palace, where he left his horse whilst he descended
into the palace, and seeing its threshold strewn with ashes, thought
that one of his family was dead. Then he entered, as of wont, and
found his father and mother and sisters clad in mourning raiment of
black, all pale of faces and lean of frames. When his sire descried
him and was assured that it was indeed his son, he cried out with a
great cry and fell down in a fit, but after a time, coming to himself,
threw himself upon him and embraced him, clipping him to his bosom and
rejoicing in him with exceeding joy and extreme gladness. His mother
and sisters heard this, so they came in, and seeing the Prince, fell
upon him, kissing him and weeping and joying with exceeding joyance.

Then they questioned him of his case, so he told them all that had
past from first to last, and his father said to him, "Praised be Allah
for thy safety, O coolth of my eyes and core of my heart!" Then the
King bade hold high festival, and the glad tidings flew through the
city. So they beat drums and cymbals and, doffing the weed of
mourning, they donned the gay garb of gladness and decorated the
streets and markets, whilst the folk vied with one another who
should be the first to give the King joy, and the King proclaimed a
general pardon, and opening the prisons, released those who were
therein prisoned. Moreover, he made banquets for the people, with
great abundance of eating and drinking, for seven days and nights, and
all creatures were gladsomest. And he took horse with his son and rode
out with him, that the folk might see him and rejoice.

After a while the Prince asked about the maker of the horse, saying,
"O my father, what hath fortune done with him?" and the King answered:
"Allah never bless him nor the hour wherein I set eyes on him! For
he was the cause of thy separation from us, O my son, and he hath lain
in jail since the day of thy disappearance." Then the King bade
release him from prison and, sending for him, invested him in a
dress of satisfaction and entreated him with the utmost favor and
munificence, save that he would not give him his daughter to wife.
Whereat the sage raged with sore rage and repented of that which he
had done, knowing that the Prince had secured the secret of the
steed and the manner of its motion. Moreover, the King said to his
son: "I reck thou wilt do well not to go near the horse henceforth,
and more especially not to mount it after this day; for thou knowest
not its properties, and belike thou art in error about it."

Now the Prince had told his father of his adventure with the King of
Sana'a and his daughter, and he said, "Had the King intended to kill
thee, he had done so, but thine hour was not yet come." When the
rejoicings were at an end, the people returned to their places and the
King and his son to the palace, where they sat down and fell to
eating, drinking, and making merry. Now the King had a handsome
handmaiden who was skilled in playing the lute, so she took it and
began to sweep the strings and sing thereto before the King and his
son of separation of lovers, and she chanted the following verses:

 "Deem not that absence breeds in me aught of forgetfulness.
  What should remember I did you fro' my remembrance wane?
  Time dies but never dies the fondest love for you we bear,
  And in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again."

When the Prince heard these verses, the fires of longing flamed up
in his heart, and pine and passion redoubled upon him. Grief and
regret were sore upon him and his bowels yeamed in him for love of the
King's daughter of Sana'a. So he rose forthright and, escaping his
father's notice, went forth the palace to the horse and mounting it,
turned the pin of ascent, whereupon birdlike it flew with him high
in air and soared toward the upper regions of the sky. In early
morning his father missed him, and going up to the pinnacle of the
palace in great concern, saw his son rising into the firmament,
whereat he was sore afflicted and repented in all penitence that he
had not taken the horse and hidden it. And he said to himself, "By
Allah, if but my son returned to me, I will destroy the horse, that my
heart may be at rest concerning my son." And he fell again to
weeping and bewailing himself.

Such was his case, but as regards the Prince, he ceased not flying
on through air till he came to the city of Sana'a and alighted on
the roof as before. Then he crept down stealthily and, finding the
eunuch asleep, as of wont, raised the curtain and went on little by
little till he came to the door of the Princess's alcove chamber and
stopped to listen, when lo! he heard her shedding plenteous tears
and reciting verses, whilst her women slept round her. Presently,
overhearing her weeping and wailing, quoth they, "O our mistress,
why wilt thou mourn for one who mourneth not for thee?" Quoth she,
"O ye little of wit, is he for whom I mourn of those who forget or who
are forgotten?" And she fell again to wailing and weeping, till sleep
overcame her.

Hereat the Prince's heart melted for her and his gall bladder was
like to burst, so he entered and, seeing her lying asleep without
covering, touched her with his hand, whereupon she opened her eyes and
espied him standing by her. Said he, "Why all this crying and
mourning?" And when she knew him, she threw herself upon him and
took him around the neck and kissed him and answered, "For thy sake
and because of my separation from thee." Said he, "O my lady, I have
been made desolate by thee all this long time!" But she replied, "'Tis
thou who hast desolated me, and hadst thou tarried longer, I had
surely died!" Rejoined he: "O my lady, what thinkest thou of my case
with thy father, and how he dealt with me? Were it not for my love
of thee, O temptation and seduction of the Three Worlds, I had
certainly slain him and made him a warning to all beholders, but
even as I love thee, so I love him for thy sake." Quoth she: "How
couldst thou leave me? Can my life be sweet to me after thee?" Quoth
he: "Let what hath happened suffice. I am now hungry, and thirsty." So
she bade her maidens make ready meat and drink, and they sat eating
and drinking and conversing till night was well-nigh ended; and when
day broke he rose to take leave of her and depart ere the eunuch
should awake.

Shams al-Nahar asked him, "Whither goest thou?" and he answered, "To
my father' house, and I plight thee my troth that I will come to
thee once in every week." But she wept and said: "I conjure thee, by
Allah the Almighty, take me with thee whereso thou wendest and make me
not taste anew the bitter gourd of separation from thee." Quoth he,
"Wilt thou indeed go with me?" and quoth she, "Yes." "Then," said
he, "arise, that we depart." So she rose forthright and going to a
chest, affayed herself in what was richest and dearest to her of her
trinkets of gold and jewels of price, and she fared forth, her
handmaids recking naught. So he carried her up to the roof of the
palace and, mounting the ebony horse, took her up behind him and
made her fast to himself, binding her with strong bonds. After which
he turned the shoulder pin of ascent and the horse rose with him
high in air.

When her slave women saw this, they shrieked aloud and told her
father and mother, who in hot haste ran to the palace roof and looking
up, saw the magical horse flying away with the Prince and Princess. At
this the King was troubled with ever-increasing trouble and cried out,
saying, "O King's son, I conjure thee, by Allah, have ruth on me and
my wife and bereave us not of our daughter!" The Prince made him no
reply, but, thinking in himself that the maiden repented of leaving
father and mother, asked her, "O ravishment of the age, say me, wilt
thou that I restore thee to thy mother and father?" Whereupon she
answered: "By Allah, O my lord, that is not my desire. My only wish is
to be with thee, wherever thou art, for I am distracted by the love of
thee from all else, even from my father and mother." Hearing these
words, the Prince joyed with great joy, and made the horse fly and
fare softly with them, so as not to disquiet her. Nor did they stay
their flight till they came in sight of a green meadow, wherein was
a spring of running water. Here they alighted and ate and drank, after
which the Prince took horse again and set her behind him, binding
her in his fear for her safety, after which they fared on till they
came in sight of his father's capital.

At this, the Prince was filled with joy and bethought himself to
show his beloved the seat of his dominion and his father's power and
dignity and give her to know that it was greater than that of her
sire. So he set her down in one of his father's gardens without the
city where his parent was wont to take his pleasure, and carrying
her into a domed summerhouse prepared there for the King, left the
ebony horse at the door and charged the damsel keep watch over it,
saying, "Sit here till my messenger come to thee, for I go now to my
father to make ready a palace for thee and show thee my royal estate."
She was delighted when she heard these words and said to him, "Do as
thou wilt," for she thereby understood that she should not enter the
city but with due honor and worship, as became her rank.

Then the Prince left her and betook himself to the palace of the
King his father, who rejoiced in his return and met him and welcomed
him, and the Prince said to him: "Know that I have brought with me the
King's daughter of whom I told thee, and have left her without the
city in such a garden and come to tell thee, that thou mayest make
ready the procession of estate and go forth to meet her and show her
the royal dignity and troops and guards." Answered the King, "With joy
and gladness," and straightway bade decorate the town with the
goodliest adornment. Then he took horse and rode out in all
magnificence and majesty, he and his host, high officers, and
household, with drums and kettledrums, fifes and clarions and all
manner instruments, whilst the Prince drew forth of his treasuries
jewelry and apparel and what else of the things which kings hoard
and made a rare display of wealth-and splendor. Moreover he got
ready for the Princess a canopied litter of brocades, green, red,
and yellow, wherein he set Indian and Greek and Abyssinian slave
girls. Then he left the litter and those who were therein and preceded
them to the pavilion where he had set her down, and searched but found
naught, neither Princess nor horse.

When he saw this, he beat his face and rent his raiment and began to
wander round about the garden as he had lost his wits, after which
he came to his senses and said to himself: "How could she have come at
the secret of this horse, seeing I told her nothing of it? Maybe the
Persian sage who made the horse hath chanced upon her and stolen her
away, in revenge for my father's treatment of him." Then he sought the
guardians of the garden and asked them if they had seen any pass the
precincts, and said: "Hath anyone come in here? Tell me the truth
and the whole truth, or I will at once strike off your heads." They
were terrified by his threats, but they answered with one voice, "We
have seen no man enter save the Persian sage, who came to gather
healing herbs." So the Prince was certified that it was indeed he that
had taken away the maiden, and abode confounded and perplexed
concerning his case. And he was abashed before the folk and, turning
to his sire, told him what had happened and said to him: "Take the
troops and march them back to the city. As for me, I will never return
till I have cleared up this affair."

When the King heard this, he wept and beat his breast and said to
him: "O my son, calm thy choler and master thy chagrin and come home
with us and look what Idng's daughter thou wouldst fain have, that I
may marry thee to her." But the Prince paid no heed to his words and
farewelling him, departed, whilst the King returned to the city, and
their joy was changed into sore annoy. Now, as Destiny issued her
decree, when the Prince left the Princess in the garden house and
betook himself to his father's palace for the ordering of his
affair, the Persian entered the garden to pluck certain simples and,
scenting the sweet savor of musk and perfumes that exhaled from the
Princess and impregnated the whole place, followed it till he came
to the pavilion and saw standing at the door the horse which he had
made with his own hands. His heart was filled with joy and gladness,
for he had bemourned its loss much since it had gone out of his
hand. So he went up to it and, examining its every part, found it
whole and sound, whereupon he was about to mount and ride away when he
bethought himself and said, "Needs must I first look what the Prince
hath brought and left here with the horse." So he entered the pavilion
and seeing the Princess sitting there, as she were the sun shining
sheen in the sky serene, knew her at the first glance to be some
highborn lady, and doubted not but the Prince had brought her
thither on the horse and left her in the pavilion whilst he went to
the city to make ready for her entry in state procession with all
splendor.

Then he went up to her and kissed the earth between her hands,
whereupon she raised her eyes to him and, finding him exceedingly foul
of face and favor, asked, "Who art thou?", and he answered, "O my
lady, I am a messenger sent by the Prince, who hath bidden me bring
thee to another pleasance nearer the city, for that my lady the
Queen cannot walk so far and is unwilling, of her joy in thee, that
another should forestall her with thee." Quoth she, "Where is the
Prince?" and quoth the Persian, "He is in the city, with his sire, and
forthwith he shall come for thee in great state." Said she: "O thou!
Say me, could he find none handsomer to send to me?" Whereat loud
laughed the sage and said: "Yea verily, he hath not a Mameluke as ugly
as I am, but, O my lady, let not the ill favor of my face and the
foulness of my form deceive thee. Hadst thou profited of me as hath
the Prince, verily thou wouldst praise my affair. Indeed, he chose
me as his messenger to thee because of my uncomeliness and
loathsomeness in his jealous love of thee. Else hath he Mamelukes
and Negro slaves, pages, eunuchs, and attendants out of number, each
goodlier than other."

Whenas she heard this, it commended itself to her reason and she
believed him, so she rose forthright and, putting her hand in his,
said, "O my father, what hast thou brought me to ride?" He replied, "O
my lady thou shalt ride the horse thou camest on," and she, "I
cannot ride it by myself." Whereupon he smiled and knew that he was
her master and said, "I will ride with thee myself." So he mounted
and, taking her up behind him, bound her to himself with firm bonds,
while she knew not what he would with her. Then he turned the ascent
pin, whereupon the belly of the horse became full of wind and it
swayed to and fro like a wave of the sea, and rose with them high in
air, nor slackened in its flight till it was out of sight of the city.
Now when Shams al-Nahar saw this, she asked him: "Ho, thou! What is
become of that thou toldest me of my Prince, making me believe that he
sent thee to me?" Answered the Persian, "Allah damn the Prince! He
is a mean and skinflint knave." She cried: "Woe to thee! How darest
thou disobey thy lord's commandment?" Whereto the Persian replied: "He
is no lord of mine. Knowest thou who I am?" Rejoined the Princess,
"I know nothing of thee save what thou toldest me," and retorted he:
"What I told thee was a trick of mine against thee and the King's son.
I have long lamented the loss of this horse which is under us, for I
constructed it and made myself master of it. But now I have gotten
firm hold of it and of thee too, and I will burn his heart even as
he hath burnt mine, nor shall he ever have the horse again- no,
never! So be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear, for I
can be of more use to thee than he. And I am generous as I am wealthy.
My servants and slaves shall obey thee as their mistress. I will
robe thee in finest raiment and thine every wish shall be at thy
will."

When she heard this, she buffeted her face and cried out, saying:
"Ah, wellaway! I have not won my beloved and I have lost my father and
mother!" And she wept bitter tears over what had befallen her,
whilst the sage fared on with her, without ceasing, till he came to
the land of the Greeks and alighted in a verdant mead, abounding in
streams and trees. Now this meadow lay near a city wherein was a
King of high puissance, and it chanced that he went forth that day
to hunt and divert himself. As he passed by the meadow, he saw the
Persian standing there, with the damsel and the horse by his side, and
before the sage was ware, the King's slaves fell upon him and
carried him and the lady and the horse to their master, who, noting
the foulness of the man's favor and his loathsomeness and the beauty
of the girl and her loveliness, said, "O my lady, what kin is this
oldster to thee?" The Persian made haste to reply, saying, "She is
my wife and the daughter of my father's brother." But the lady at once
gave him the lie and said: "O King, by Allah, I know him not, nor is
he my husband. Nay, he is a wicked magician who hath stolen me away by
force and fraud." Thereupon the King bade bastinado the Persian, and
they beat him till he was well-nigh dead, after which the King
commanded to carry him to the city and cast him into jail; and, taking
from him the damsel and the ebony horse (though he knew not its
properties nor the secret of its motion), set the girl in his seraglio
and the horse amongst his hoards.

Such was the case with the sage and the lady, but as regards
Prince Kamar al-Akmar, he garbed himself in traveling gear and
taking what he needed of money, set out tracking their trail in very
sorry plight, and journeyed from the country to country and city to
city seeking the Princess and inquiring after the ebony horse,
whilst all who heard him marveled at him and deemed his talk
extravagant. Thus he continued doing a long while, but for all his
inquiry and quest, he could hit on no news of her. At last he came
to her father's city of Sana'a and there asked for her, but could
get no tidings of her and found her father mourning her loss. So he
turned back and made for the land of the Greeks, continuing to inquire
concerning the twain as he went till, as chance would have it, he
alighted at a certain khan and saw a company of merchants sitting at
talk. So he sat down near them and heard one say, "O my friends, I
lately witnessed a wonder of wonders." They asked, "What was that?"
and he answered: "I was visiting such a district in such a city
(naming the city wherein was the Princess), and I heard its people
chatting of a strange thing which had lately befallen. It was that
their King went out one day hunting and coursing with a company of his
courtiers and the lords of his realm, and issuing from the city,
they came to a green meadow where they espied an old man standing,
with a woman sitting hard by a horse of ebony. The man was foulest
foul of face and loathly of form, but the woman was a marvel of beauty
and loveliness and elegance and perfect grace, and as for the wooden
horse, it was a miracle- never saw eyes aught goodlier than it nor
more gracious than its make." Asked the others, "And what did the King
with them?" and the merchant answered; "As for the man, the King
seized him and questioned him of the damsel and he pretended that she
was his wife and the daughter of his paternal uncle, but she gave him
the lie forthright and declared that he was a sorcerer and a villian.
So the King took her from the old man and bade beat him and cast him
into the trunk house. As for the ebony horse, I know not what became
of it."

When the Prince heard these words, he drew near to the merchant
and began questioning him discreetly and courteously touching the name
of the city and of its King, which when he knew, he passed the night
full of joy. And as soon as dawned the day he set out and traveled
sans surcease till he reached that city. But when he would have
entered, the gatekeepers laid hands on him, that they might bring
him before the King to question him of his condition and the craft
in which he skilled and the cause of his coming thither- such being
the usage and custom of their ruler. Now it was suppertime when he
entered the city, and it was then impossible to go in to the King or
take counsel with him respecting the stranger. So the guards carried
him to the jail, thinking to lay him by the heels there for the night.
But when the warders saw his beauty and loveliness, they could not
find it in their hearts to imprison him. They made him sit with them
without the walls, and when food came to them, he ate with them what
sufficed him.

As soon as they had made an end of eating, they turned to the Prince
and said, "What countryman art thou?" "I come from Fars," answered he,
"the land of the Chosroes." When they heard this, they laughed and one
of them said: "O Chosroan, I have heard the talk of men and their
histories and I have looked into their conditions, but never saw I
or heard I a bigger liar than the Chosroan which is with us in the
jail." Quoth another, "And never did I see aught fouler than his favor
or more hideous than his visnomy." Asked the Prince, "What have ye
seen of his lying?" and they answered: "He pretendeth that he is one
of the wise! Now the King came upon him as he went a-hunting, and
found with him a most beautiful woman and a horse of the blackest
ebony- never saw I a handsomer. As for the damsel, she is with the
King, who is enamored of her and would fain marry her. But she is mad,
and were this man a leech, as he claimeth to be, he would have
healed her, for the King doth his utmost to discover a cure for her
case and a remedy for her disease, and this whole year past hath he
spent treasures upon physicians and astrologers on her account, but
none can avail to cure her. As for the horse, it is in the royal hoard
house, and the ugly man is here with us in prison, and as soon as
night falleth, he weepeth and bemoaneth himself and will not let us
sleep."

When the warders had recounted the case of the Persian egromancer
they held in prison and his weeping and wailing, the Prince at once
devised a device whereby he might compass his desire, and presently
the guards of the gate, being minded to sleep, led him into the jail
and locked the door. So he overheard the Persian weeping and bemoaning
himself in his own tongue, and saying: "Alack, and alas for my sin,
that I sinned against myself and against the King's son, in that which
I did with the damsel, for I neither left her nor won my will of
her! All this cometh of my lack of sense, in that I sought for
myself that which I deserved not and which befitted not the like of
me. For whoso seeketh what suiteth him not at all, falleth with the
like of my fall." Now when the King's son heard this, he accosted
him in Persian, saying: "How long will this weeping and wailing
last? Say me, thinkest thou that hath befallen thee that which never
befell other than thou?"

Now when the Persian heard this, he made friends with him and
began to complain to him of his case and misfortunes. And as soon as
the morning morrowed, the warders took the Prince and carried him
before their King, informing him that he had entered the city on the
previous night, at a time when audience was impossible. Quoth the King
to the Prince, "Whence comest thou, and what is thy name and trade,
and why hast thou traveled hither?" He replied: "As to my name, I am
called in Persian Harjah. As to my country, I come from the land of
Fars, and I am of the men of art and especially of the art of medicine
and healing the sick and those whom the Jinns drive mad. For this I go
round about all countries and cities, to profit by adding knowledge to
my knowledge, and whenever I see a patient I heal him, and this is
my craft." Now when the King heard this, he rejoiced with exceeding
joy and said, "O excellent sage, thou hast indeed come to us at a time
when we need thee." Then he acquainted him with the case of the
Princess, adding, "If thou cure her and recover her from her
madness, thou shalt have of me everything thou seekest." Replied the
Prince, "Allah save and favor the King. Describe to me all thou hast
seen of her insanity, and tell me how long it is since the access
attacked her, also how thou camest by her and the horse and the sage."

So the King told him the whole story, from first to last, adding,
"The sage is in jail." Quoth the Prince, "O auspicious King, and
what hast thou done with the horse?" Quoth the King, "O youth, it is
with me yet, laid up in one of my treasure chambers." Whereupon said
the Prince within himself: "The best thing I can do is first to see
the horse and assure myself of its condition. If it be whole and
sound, all will be well and end well. But if its motor works be
destroyed, I must find some other way of delivering my beloved."
Thereupon he turned to the King and said to him: "O King, I must see
the horse in question. Haply I may find in it somewhat that will serve
me for the recovery of the damsel." "With all my heart," replied the
King, and taking him by the hand, showed him into the place where
the horse was. The Prince went round about it, examining its
condition, and found it whole and sound, whereat he rejoiced greatly
and said to the King: "Allah save and exalt the King! I would fain
go in to the damsel, that I may see how it is with her, for I hope
in Allah to heal her by my healing hand through means of the horse."
Then he bade them take care of the horse and the King carried him to
the Princess's apartment, where her lover found her wringing her hands
and writhing and beating herself against the ground, and tearing her
garments to tatters as was her wont. But there was no madness of
Jinn in her, and she did this but that none might approach her.

When the Prince saw her thus, he said to her, "No harm shall
betide thee, O ravishment of the Three Worlds," and went on to
soothe her and speak her fair, till he managed to whisper, "I am Kamar
al-Akmar," whereupon she cried out with a loud cry and fell down
fainting for excess of joy. But the King thought this was epilepsy
brought on by her fear of him, and by her suddenly being startled.
Then the Prince put his mouth to her ear and said to her: "O Shams
al-Nahar, O seduction of the universe, have a care for thy life and
mine and be patient and constant; for this our position needeth
sufferance and skillful contrivance to make shift for our delivery
from this tyrannical King. My first move will be now to go out to
him and tell him that thou art possessed of a Jinn and hence thy
madness, but that I will engage to heal thee and drive away the evil
spirit if he will at once unbind thy bonds. So when he cometh in to
thee, do thou speak him smooth words, that he may think I have cured
thee, and all will be done for us as we desire." Quoth she,
"Hearkening and obedience," and he went out to the King in joy and
gladness, and said to him: "O august King, I have, by thy good
fortune, discovered her disease and its remedy, and have cured her for
thee. So now do thou go in to and speak her softly and treat her
kindly, and promise her what thou desirest of her be accomplished to
thee."

Thereupon the King went in to her, and when she saw him, she rose
and kissing the ground before him, bade him welcome and said, "I
admire how thou hast come to visit thy handmaid this day." Whereat
he was ready to fly for joy and bade the waiting women and the eunuchs
attend her and carry her to the hammam and make ready for her
dresses and adornment. So they went in to her and saluted her, and she
returned their salaams with the goodliest language and after the
pleasantest fashion. Whereupon they clad her in royal apparel and,
clasping a collar of jewels about her neck, carried her to the bath
and served her there. Then they brought her forth as she were the full
moon, and when she came into the King's presence, she saluted him
and kissed ground before him. Whereupon he joyed in her with joy
exceeding and said to the Prince: "O Sage, O Philosopher, all this
is of thy blessing. Allah increase to us the benefit of thy healing
breath!" The Prince replied: "O King, for the completion of her cure
it behooveth that thou go forth, thou and all thy troops and guards,
to the place where thou foundest her, not forgetting the beast of
black wood which was with her. For therein is a devil, and unless I
exorcise him, he will return to her and afflict her at the head of
every month." "With love and gladness," cried the King, "O thou Prince
of all philosophers and most learned of all who see the light of day."

Then he brought out the ebony horse to the meadow in question and
rode thither with all his troops and the Princess, little weeting
the purpose of the Prince. Now when they came to the appointed
place, the Prince, still habited as a leech, bade them set the
Princess and the steed as far as eye could reach from the King and his
troops, and said to him: "With thy leave, and at thy word, I will
now proceed to the fumigations and conjurations, and here imprison the
adversary of mankind, that he may never more return to her. After
this, I shall mount this wooden horse, which seemeth to be made of
ebony, and take the damsel up behind me, whereupon it will shake and
sway to and fro and fare forward till it come to thee, when the affair
will be at an end. And after this thou mayest do with her as thou
wilt." When the King heard his words, he rejoiced with extreme joy, so
the Prince mounted the horse, and taking the damsel up behind him,
whilst the King and his troops watched him, bound her fast to him.
Then he turned the ascending pin and the horse took flight and
soared with them high in air, till they disappeared from every eye.

After this the King abode half the day expecting their return, but
they returned not. So when he despaired of them, repenting him greatly
of that which he had done and grieving sore for the loss of the
damsel, he went back to the city with his troops. He then sent for the
Persian who was in prison and said to him: "O thou traitor, O thou
villain, why didst thou hide from me the mystery of the ebony horse?
And now a sharper hath come to me and hath carried it off, together
with a slave girl whose ornaments are worth a mint of money, and I
shall never see anyone or anything of them again!" So the Persian
related to him all his past, first and last, and the King was seized
with a fit of by which well-nigh ended his life. He shut himself up in
his palace for a while, mourning and afflicted. But at last his Wazirs
came in to him and applied themselves to comfort him, saying: "Verily,
he who took the damsel is an enchanter, and praised be Allah who
hath delivered thee from his craft and sorcery!" And they ceased not
from him till he was comforted for her loss.

Thus far concerning the the King, but as for the Prince, he
continued his career toward his father's capital in joy and cheer, and
stayed not till he alighted on his own palace, where he set the lady
in safety. After which he went in to his father and mother and saluted
them and acquainted them with her coming, whereat they were filled
with solace and gladness. Then he spread great banquets for the
townsfolk and they held high festival a whole month, at the end of
which time he went in to the Princess and they took their joy of
each other with exceeding joy. But his father brake the ebony horse in
pieces and destroyed its mechanism for flight.

Moreover, the Prince wrote a letter to the Princess's father,
advising him of all that had befallen her and informing him how she
was now married to him and in all health and happiness, and sent it by
a messenger, together with costly presents and curious rarities. And
when the messenger arrived at the city which was Sana'a and
delivered the letter and the presents to the King, he read the missive
and rejoiced greatly thereat and accepted the presents, honoring and
rewarding the bearer handsomely. Moreover, he forwarded rich gifts
to his son-in-law by the same messenger, who returned to his master
and acquainted him with what had passed, whereat he was much
cheered. And after this the Prince wrote a letter every year to his
father-in-law and sent him presents till, in course of time, his
sire King Sabur deceased and he reigned in his stead, ruling justly
over his lieges and conducting himself well and righteously toward
them, so that the land submitted to him and his subjects did him loyal
service. And Kamar al-Akmar and his wife Shams al-Nahar abode in the
enjoyment of all satisfaction and solace of life till there came to
them the Destroyer of delights and Sunderer of societies, the
Plunderer of palaces, the Caterer for cemeteries, and the Garnerer
of graves. And now glory be to the Living One who dieth not and in
whose hand is the dominion of the worlds visible and invisible!

Moreover I have heard tell the tale of

   THE ANGEL OF DEATH WITH THE PROUD AND THE DEVOUT MAN


IT is related, O auspicious King, that one of the olden monarchs was
once minded to ride out in state with the officers of his realm and
the grandees of his retinue and display to the folk the marvels of his
magnificence. So he ordered his lords and emirs equip them therefor
and commanded his keeper of the wardrobe to bring him of the richest
of raiment, such as befitted the King in his state, and he bade them
bring his steeds of the finest breeds and pedigrees every man heeds.
Which being done, he chose out of the raiment what rejoiced him most
and of the horses that which he deemed best, and donning the
clothes, together with a collar set with margarites and rubies and all
manner jewels, mounted and set forth in state, making his destrier
prance and curvet among his troops and glorying in his pride and
despotic power.

And Iblis came to him and, laying his hand upon his nose, blew
into his nostrils the breath of hauteur and conceit, so that he
magnified and glorified himself and said in his heart, "Who among
men is like unto me?" And he became so pulled up with arrogance and
self-sufficiency, and so taken up with the thought of his own splendor
and magnificence, that he would not vouchsafe a glance to any man.
Presently there stood before him one clad in tattered clothes and
saluted him, but he returned not his salaam, whereupon the stranger
laid hold of his horse's bridle. "Lift thy hand!" cried the King.
"Thou knowest not whose bridle rein it is whereof thou takest hold."
Quoth the other, "I have a need of thee." Quoth the King, "Wait till I
alight, and then name thy need." Rejoined the stranger, "It is a
secret and I will not tell it but in thine ear." So the King bowed his
head to him and he said, "I am the Angel of Death and I purpose to
take thy soul." Replied the King, "Have patience with me a little,
whilst I return to my house and take leave of my people and children
and neighbors and wife." "By no means so," answered the Angel. "Thou
shalt never return nor look on them again, for the fated term of
thy life is past."

So saying, he took the soul of the King (who fell off his horse's
back dead) and departed thence. Presently the Death Angel met a devout
man, of whom Almighty Allah had accepted, and saluted him. He returned
the salute, and the Angel said to him, "O pious man, I have a need
of thee which must be kept secret." "Tell it in my ear," quoth the
devotee, and quoth the other, "I am the Angel of Death." Replied the
man: "Welcome to thee! And praised be Allah for thy coming! I am
aweary of awaiting thine arrival, for indeed long hath been thine
absence from the lover which longeth for thee." Said the Angel, "If
thou have any business, make an end of it," but the other answered,
saying, "There is nothing so urgent to me as the meeting with my Lord,
to whom be honor and glory!" And the Angel said, "How wouldst thou
fain have me take thy soul? I am bidden to take it as thou willest and
choosest." He replied, "Tarry till I make the wuzu ablution and
pray, and when I prostrate myself, then take my soul while my body
is on the ground." Quoth the Angel, "Verily, my Lord (be He extolled
and exalted!) commanded me not to take thy soul but with thy consent
and as thou shouldst wish, so I will do thy will." Then the devout man
made the minor ablution and prayed, and the Angel of Death took his
soul in the act of prostration and Almighty Allah transported it to
the place of mercy and acceptance and forgiveness.