The princess continued all this while where the king of Persia had left her. The officer brought her with her women to attend her. The king of Samarcand embraced her, and said, Daughter, I have provided a husband for you: it is the king of Persia you see there, the most accomplished monarch at this juncture in the universe. The preference he has given you to all other princesses obliges us both to make him suitable acknowledgments.
Sir, replied the princess Giahaure, your majesty well knows I have never presumed to disobey your will in any thing: I shall be always ready to obey you; and I hope the king of Persia will please to forget the ill treatment I gave him, and consider it was duty, not inclination, that forced me to it.
The nuptials were celebrated in the palace of the city of enchantments, with so much the greater solemnity, as all the lovers of the magic queen, who resumed their pristine forms as soon as ever that queen ceased to live, assisted at them, and came to pay their acknowledgments to the king of Persia, queen Gulnare, and king Saleh. They were all either sons of kings, or princes of extraordinary merit.
King Saleh at length conducted the king of Samarcand to his dominions, and put him once again in possession of them. The king of Persia, having what he most desired, returned to his capital with queen Giahaure, queen Gulnare, queen Farasche, and the princesses; and queen Farasche and the princesses continued there, till such time as king Saleh came to re-conduct them to his kingdom under the waves of the sea.
THE STORY OF
GANEM, SON TO ABOU AYOUB, AND KNOWN BY THE SURNAME OF LOVE’S SLAVE.
There was formerly a merchant at Damascus, who had, by care and industry, acquired great wealth, on which he lived in a very honourable manner. His name was Abou Ayoub, and he had one son and a daughter. The son was at first called Ganem, but afterwards had the surname of Love’s Slave. He was graceful as to his person, and the excellent natural qualities of his mind had been improved by able masters his father had taken care to provide him. The daughter’s name was Alcolomb, signifying ravisher of hearts, because her beauty was so accomplished, that whosoever saw her could not but love her.
Abou Ayoub died, and left immense riches: an hundred loads of brocades, and other silks that lay in his warehouse, were the least part of it. The loads were ready made up, and on every bale was written, in large characters, “For Bagdad.”
Mohammed, the son of Soliman, surnamed Zinebi, reigned at that time in Damascus, the capital of Syria. His kinsman Haroun Alraschid, whose residence was at Bagdad, had bestowed this kingdom on him as tributary to him.
Soon after the death of Abou Ayoub, Ganem, discoursing with his mother about their private affairs, among the rest, concerning the bales of merchandise that lay in the warehouse, asked her the meaning of what was written upon each bale. My son, answered his mother, your father used to travel sometimes into one province and sometimes into another, and it was customary with him, before he set out, to write the name of the city he designed to repair to on every bale. He had provided all things to take a journey to Bagdad, and was upon the point of setting forwards, when death——She had not the power to proceed any farther; the lively remembrance of the loss of her husband would not permit her to say any more, and drew from her a shower of tears.
Ganem could not see his mother so sensibly affected without relenting. Thus they continued some time in silence; but at length he recovered himself; and, as soon as he found his mother calm enough to listen to him, he directed his discourse to her, and said: Since my father designed these goods for Bagdad, and is no longer in being to put his design in execution, I will prepare myself to perform that journey; and I am of opinion, it will be proper for me to expedite my departure, for fear those commodities should perish, or, at least, that we lose the opportunity of selling them to the best advantage.