TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.[53]
King Shahriman had a son, Kamar al-Zaman, who “grew up of surpassing beauty ... and symmetry,” but was unwilling to marry. For this he is eventually cast into prison. A similar fate has befallen Princess Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, Lord of China Islands and Seas, and for a similar reason. The maiden is pictured as one “than whom Allah hath made none fairer in her time ... with cheeks like purple wine ... lips as coral ... breasts like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the moons borrow light, and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth ... with creases like folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would lief stand....”
Two genii, Maymunah, a woman, and Dahnash, a man, now come into the story, the former as a champion of Kamar, the latter as Princess Budur’s. After a long dispute as to the rival charms of Prince and Princess, they convey the latter to the Prince’s side, the test of beauty to be as follows:—
Each is to be awakened in turn, without knowledge of the other, and whichever is the more enamoured will be held inferior in comeliness.
Dahnash then changes himself into a flea, and bites Kamar al-Zaman, who wakes up. The text continues:—
... Then turning sideways, he found lying by him something whose breath was sweeter than musk and whose skin was softer than cream. Hereat he marvelled with great marvel, and he sat up and looked at what lay beside him; when he saw it to be a young lady like an union pearl, or a shining sun, or a dome seen from afar on a well-built wall: for she was five feet tall ... bosomed high and rosy-cheeked....
And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the lady Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, and her beauty and comeliness, she was sleeping clad in a shift of Venetian silk, without her petticoat trousers, and wore on her head a kerchief embroidered with gold and set with stones of price; her ears were hung with twin earrings which shone like constellations, and round her neck was a collar of union pearls, of size unique, past the competence of any king.
When he saw this, his reason was confounded and natural heat began to stir in him; Allah awoke in him the desire of coïtion and he said to himself:
“Whatso Allah willeth, that shall be, and what he willeth not shall be!”
So saying, he put out his hand, turning her over, loosed the collar of her chemise; then arose before his sight her bosom, with its breasts like double globes of ivory; whereat his inclination for her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding hot desire. He would have awakened her but she would not awake, for Dahnash had made her sleep heavy; so he shook her and moved her, saying: