he rode out to meet him and they saluted each other. And when King
Shahryar looked at King Shah Zaman, he saw how the hue of health had

returned to him, how his face had waxed ruddy, and how he ate with
an appetite after his late scanty diet. He wondered much and said:

"O my brother, I was no anxious that thou wouldst join me in hunting
and chasing, and wouldst take thy pleasure and pastime in my

dominion!" He thanked him and excused himself.
Then the two took horse and rode into the city, and when they were

seated at their ease in the palace, the food trays were set before
them and they ate their sufficiency. After the meats were removed

and they had washed their hands, King Shahryar turned to his brother
and said: "My mind is overcome with wonderment at thy condition. I was

desirous to carry thee with me to the chase, but I saw thee changed in
hue, pale and wan to view, and in sore trouble of mind too. But now,

Alhamdolillah- glory be to God!- I see thy natural color hath returned
to thy face and that thou art again in the best of case. It was my

belief that thy sickness came of severance from thy family and
friends, and absence from capital and country, so I refrained from

troubling thee with further questions. But now I beseech thee to
expound to me the cause of thy complaint and thy change of color,

and to explain the reason of thy recovery and the return to the
ruddy hue of health which I am wont to view. So speak out and hide

naught!"
When Shah Zaman heard this, he bowed groundward awhile his head,

then raised it and said: "I will tell thee what caused my complaint
and my loss of color. But excuse my acquainting thee with the cause of

its return to me and the reason of my complete recovery. Indeed I pray
thee not to press me for a reply." Said Shahryar, who was much

surprised by these words, "Let me hear first what produced thy
pallor and thy poor condition." "Know, then, O my brother," rejoined

Shah Zaman, "that when thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to
place myself between thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my

city. But presently I minded me having left behind me in the palace
a string of jewels intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it

alone, and found my wife on my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous
black cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts

brooded over this business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But
excuse me if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my

complexion returning."
Shahryar shook his head, marveling with extrememarvel, and with the

fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he cried, "Indeed, the malice
of woman is mighty!" Then he took refuge from them with Allah and

said: "In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast escaped many an evil
by putting thy wife to death, and right excusable were thy wrath and

grief for such mishap, which never yet befell crowned king like
thee. By Allah, had the case been mine, I would not have been

satisfied without slaying a thousand women, and that way madness lies!
But now praise be to Allah Who hath tempered to thee thy

tribulation, and needs must thou acquaint me with that which so
suddenly restored to thee complexion and health, and explain to me

what causeth this concealment." "O King of the Age, again I pray
thee excuse my so doing!" "Nay, but thou must." "I fear, O my brother,

lest the recital cause thee more anger and sorrow than afflicted
me." "That were but a better reason," quoth Shahryar, "for telling

me the whole history, and I conjure thee by Allah not to keep back
aught from me."

Thereupon Shah Zaman told him all he had seen, from commencement
to conclusion, ending with these words: "When I beheld thy calamity

and the treason of thy wife, O my brother, and I reflected that thou
art in years my senior and in sovereignty my superior, mine own sorrow

was belittled by the comparison, and my mind recovered tone and
temper. So, throwing off melancholy and despondency, I was able to eat

and drink and sleep, and thus I speedily regained health and strength.
Such is the truth and the whole truth." When King Shahryar heard

this he waxed wroth with exceeding wrath, and rage was like to
strangle him. But presently he recovered himself and said, "O my

brother, I would not give thee the lie in this matter, but I cannot
credit it till I see it with mine own eyes." "And thou wouldst look

upon thy calamity," quoth Shah Zaman, "rise at once and make ready
again for hunting and coursing, and then hide thyself with me. So

shalt thou witness it and thine eyes shall verify it." "True," quoth
the King. Whereupon he let make proclamation of his intent to

travel, and the troops and tents fared forth without the city, camping
within sight, and Shahryar sallied out with them and took seat

a-midmost his host, bidding the slaves admit no man to him. When night
came on, he summoned his Wazir and said to him, "Sit thou in my stead,

and let none wot of my absence till the term of three days."
Then the brothers disguised themselves and returned by night with

all secrecy to the palace, where they passed the dark hours. And at
dawn they seated themselves at the lattice overlooking the pleasure

grounds, when presently the Queen and her handmaids came out as
before, and passing under the windows, made for the fountain. Here

they stripped, ten of them being men to ten women, and the King's wife
cried out, "Where art thou, O Saeed?" The hideous blackamoor dropped

from the tree straightway, and rushing into her arms without stay or
delay, cried out, "I am Sa'ad al-Din Saood!" The lady laughed

heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so
occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the

handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's
bosom. Then they went into the basin and after performing the ghusl,

or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had
done before.

When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines, he
became as one distraught, and he cried out: "Only in utter solitude

can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life
is naught but one great wrong." Presently he added, "Do not thwart me,

O my brother, in what I propose." And the other answered, "I will
not." So he said: "Let us up as we are and depart forthright hence,

for we have no concern with kingship, and let us overwander Allah's
earth, worshiping the Almighty till we find someone to whom the like

calamity hath happened. And if we find none then will death be more
welcome to us than life."

So the two brothers issued from a second private postern of the
palace, and they never stinted wayfaring by day and by night until

they reached a tree a-middle of a meadow hard by a spring of sweet
water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it and sat down to

take their rest. And when an hour of the day had gone by, lo! they
heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main as though the

heavens were falling upon the earth, and the sea brake with waves
before them and from it towered a black pillar, which grew and grew

till it rose skyward and began making for that meadow. Seeing it, they
waxed fearfulexceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree, which

was a lofty, whence they gazed to see what might be the matter. And
behold, it was a Jinni, huge of height and burly of breast and bulk,

broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a coffer of
crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming to the

tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath it. He
then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a casket

with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys of
steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to

come was seen, whiteskinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and
thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had

been, or the sun raining lively sheen. Even so the poet Utayyah
hath excellently said:-

She rose like the morn as she shone through the night
And she gilded the grove with her gracious sight.

From her radiance the sun taketh increase when
She unveileth and shameth the moonshine bright.

Bow down all beings between her hands
As she showeth charms with her veil undight.