So in my heart a flower of passion blows,
See the dark stain of its intensity
Deeper than all.”
And then we lost the words as we moved into the inner chamber.
Now this inner chamber was all of pearl-pure marble, and in the midst a deeply sunk bath of marble long and wide and with its walls decorated with lotuses and their leaves, and a silver pipe led the water to this from a mighty silver vessel six feet and more in height and of great capacity, supported on a tripod of sculptured silver, and below it a place for fire, enclosed and fed with sweet-scented woods and balls of perfume made of rare gums. And, O Allah most Merciful, there the lady Imami had kindled fire by command of the Emperor, and within might be seen the brilliant blue flame licking up the perfumes and crawling like snakes about the cedar wood below the vessel. And certainly I looked that the Princess should do some desperate deed for the enlargement of the man most miserable hidden within the vessel, and releasing her I stood like a graven image of terror, expecting what she would do.
She laid her hand on the silver, and amid the crackling of the flames she said in a clear small voice:
“You came unsought. You violated the secrecy of the Hidden One. What then is your duty, exalted cousin?”
And from within he spoke in a voice—O Allah, most compassionate, grant that I may never hear such again!—the one word:
“Silence.”
And she: