They answered, 'Our King!'
And he said, 'How so?'
They answered, 'By the crowning of the brides of Aklis.'
Then he said, 'What be ye, O my subjects?'
They answered, 'Men that were searchers of the Sword and plunged into the tank of temptation.'
And he said, 'How that?'
They answered, 'By the lures of vanity, the blinding of ambition, and tasting the gall of the Roc.'
So Shibli Bagarag leaned to the seven youths, saying, 'O my princes, but for not tasting the gall of the Roc I might be as one of these. Wullahy! I the King am warned by base creatures.' Then he said to the animals, 'Have ye still a longing for the crown?'
And they cried, all of them, 'O light of the astonished earth, we care for nought other than it.'
So he said, 'And is it known to ye how to dispossess the wearer of his burden?'