“Let us go,” answered the prince; “I must take care to do exactly as I agreed; yet I must confess, my dear Mobarec, that, if I obey the Sultan of the Genii, it is not without reluctance. The damsel I have married is so charming that I am tempted to carry her to Bussorah and place her on the throne.”
“Alas! sir,” answered Mobarec, “take heed how you give way to your inclination. Whatever it costs you, be as good as your word to the Sultan of the Genii.”
“Well, then, Mobarec,” said the prince, “do you take care to conceal the lovely maid from me. Let her never appear in my sight—perhaps I have already seen too much of her.”
Mobarec made all ready for their departure. They returned to Cairo and thence set out for the island of the Sultan of the Genii. When they arrived, the maid, who had performed the journey in a litter, and whom the prince had never seen since his marriage, said to Mobarec: “Where are we? Shall we soon be in the dominions of the prince my husband?”
“Madam,” answered Mobarec, “it is time to undeceive you. Prince Zeyn married you only in order to get you from your father. He did not intend to make you Sovereign of Bussorah, but to deliver you to the Sultan of the Genii.”
At these words she began to weep bitterly, which moved the prince and Mobarec. “Take pity on me,” said she. “I am a stranger. You will be accountable to God for your treachery towards me.”
Her tears and complaints were of no effect, for she was presented to the Sultan of the Genii, who having gazed on her with attention, said to Zeyn: “Prince, I am satisfied with your behavior. The maiden you have brought me is beautiful and good, and I am pleased with the restraint you have put on yourself to fulfill your promise to me. Return to your dominions, and when you enter the underground room, where the eight statues are, you shall find the ninth which I promised you. I will make my genii carry it thither.”
Zeyn thanked the King of the Genii, and returned to Cairo with Mobarec, but did not stay long in Egypt, for his impatience to see the ninth statue made him hasten his departure. However, he could not but often think regretfully of the young girl he had married and blame himself for having deceived her. “Alas!” said he to himself, “I have taken her from a tender father to sacrifice her to a genie. Oh, wonderful beauty! You deserve a better fate.”
Sultan Zeyn, disturbed with these thoughts, at length reached Bussorah, where his subjects made extraordinary rejoicings for his return. He went directly to give an account of his journey to his mother, who was in a rapture to hear that he had obtained the ninth statue. “Let us go, my son,” said she, “and see it, for it is certainly in the underground chamber, since the Sultan of the Genii said you should find it there.”
The young sultan and his mother being both impatient to see the wonderful statue, went down into the room of the statues; but how great was their surprise, when, instead of a statue of diamonds, they beheld on the ninth pedestal a most beautiful girl, whom the prince knew to be the same whom he had conducted to the island of the genii! “Prince,” said the young maid, “you are surprised to see me here. You expected to have found something more precious than me, and I question not but that you now repent having taken so much trouble. You expected a better reward.”