Then shun their intimacy, save it be ✿ To win thee lore, or better thine estate.
And a fourth saith:—
If a sharp-witted wight e’er tried mankind, ✿ I’ve eaten that which only tasted he:[[257]]
Their amity proved naught but wile and guile, ✿ Their faith I found was but hypocrisy.
Quoth Ali, “O my father, I have heard thee and I will obey thee; what more shall I do?” Quoth he, “Do good whenas thou art able; be ever kind and courteous to men and regard as riches every occasion of doing a good turn; for a design is not always easily carried out”; and how well saith the poet:—
‘Tis not at every time and tide unstable, ✿ We can do kindly acts and charitable:
When thou art able hasten thee to act, ✿ Lest thine endeavour prove anon unable!
Said Ali, “I have heard thee and I will obey thee.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth replied, “I have heard thee and I will obey thee; what more?” And his sire continued, “Be thou, O my son, mindful of Allah, so shall He be mindful of thee. Ward thy wealth and waste it not; for an thou do, thou wilt come to want the least of mankind. Know that the measure of a man’s worth is according to that which his right hand hendeth”: and how well saith the poet:[[258]]—