The Tailor and the Woman
“Thus relate they: In the time of Saint Jesus (peace on him!) there was a tailor youth who had a fair wife, and they greatly loved one another. One day they made a pact that if the woman died first, her husband should take no other wife, but throw his arms round her tombstone, and weep till morning; and if the youth died first, the woman should do likewise. By the decree of God the woman died. After the tailor had wept and lamented he buried her, and fulfilled his pact, and threw his arms round his wife’s tombstone and wept. And he constantly kept watch over the grave. One day Jesus (peace on him!) when passing by that place, saw a youth weeping and embracing a tombstone, and he went up to him and asked why he wept. The youth related all.
“Then Jesus (peace on him!) prayed, and the woman became alive, and came forth from the grave in her shroud. And Jesus (peace on him!) proceeded on his way. The youth said, ‘One cannot go thus in a shroud; wait thou here a moment till I go and fetch clothes from the house; then thou shalt put on these clothes, and we will go together.’ And he went quickly to the house, leaving the woman there. Suddenly the son of the king of that country passed that spot, and saw a fair woman sitting wrapped in a shroud. As soon as the prince saw that woman he fell in love with her from heart and soul, and he said to her, ‘Who art thou?’ She answered, ‘I am a stranger; a robber has stripped me.’ Thereupon the prince ordered his servants to take the woman to the palace, and clothe her in clean garments.
“When the youth returned with the clothes he found not the woman there, and he cried and asked of the passers-by. No one had seen her. The poor man, asking and asking, met the prince’s servants. These asked the tailor why he wept. He replied, ‘For a time my wife was dead; but now, praise be to God, she is become alive through the prayer of the messenger Jesus; I went to fetch her clothes, but she has disappeared: therefore do I weep.’ They answered, ‘The prince sent that lady to the palace this day.’ Thereupon the tailor went before the prince and complained, saying, ‘The woman thou hast taken is my wife.’ The prince asked the lady, she denied and said, ‘This is the robber who stripped me of my clothes and made off; praise be to God, if thou kill him now, thou shalt gain great reward.’ The prince commanded that they bound both the tailor’s hands behind his back. Although the poor tailor cried aloud, it was no avail; they put a rope round his neck and led him to the gallows.
“Then they perceived Saint Jesus on the road, and they waited. When he came near he asked of their case, and they told him. Then he bade them stop and went himself to the prince; they called the woman, and he said, ‘This woman is the wife of yonder youth; I prayed and she became alive.’ When the woman saw the messenger she was unable to deny, but spake the truth. Jesus (peace on him!) prayed again, and that woman died; and the youth was rescued from the abyss whereinto he had fallen, and he repented of his having wept so long a time.
“Now, O king, I have told this story for that thou mayst know that the inclinations of women are ever to works of evil, craft, and wickedness.” And he kissed the ground and made intercession for the prince’s life. When the king heard this story from the vezir he sent the prince to the prison, and went himself to the chase.
In the evening he returned from the chase and came to the palace, and the lady rose to greet him, and they sat down. After the repast the lady fell to speaking about the youth. The king said, “To-day such an one of my vezirs made intercession for him, so I have again sent him to the prison.” Quoth the lady, “O king, thou dost not believe my words; but at length, in the near future, some hurt will befall thee from the youth; for this night I saw a vision, which it is, as it were, a duty on me to tell my king, and incumbent on thee to hear.” Said the king, “Tell on, let us hear.” The lady said, “This night thou wast holding in thy hand a golden ball, and that ball was adorned and set round with rubies and jewels, and its brilliancy lit up the world; and thou wast playing, throwing up the ball and catching it in thy hand. And this youth was sitting by thy side watching, and ever and anon he asked for the ball, but thou gavest him it not.
“Of a sudden, while thou wast heedless, he snatched the ball, and for that thou hadst not given it him when he had asked was he angry, and he struck the ball upon a stone, so that it was shattered in pieces. And I was grieved, and I went and picked up the fragments of the ball, and gave them into thy hand, and thou didst look upon those fragments and didst marvel, and with that I awoke.” Quoth the king, “What may the interpretation of this vision be?” The lady said, “I interpreted this dream: that ball is thy kingdom; and this youth’s snatching it from thy hand is this, that this youth came to me and said, ‘I wish to kill my father and sit upon the throne, and I desire to make thee my wife; and all the men of the kingdom have turned to me, and now the kingdom is wholly mine, do thou likewise submit to me?’ Had I submitted to him, ere now he had killed thee and accomplished his affair. Ah! the fortune and auspiciousness of my king averted it. And his striking the ball upon the stone is this, that if he had become king after thee, he would have utterly ruined the kingdom. And my going and picking up the fragments and giving them to the king is this, that for that I obeyed not the youth, but came and told the king, he seized him, and the kingdom remained in his hand. But had not I done so, know of a surety that ere now the kingdom would have passed from thy hand; yea, thy life, too, would have gone. That is the interpretation of the dream. O king, the story of this degenerate youth resembles that of a certain king’s son; mayhap my king has not heard it.” The king said, “Tell on, let us hear.” Quoth the lady: