Asraf-el-Kaum answered, "I have come here to ask you for water, for I have lost my way."
The princess said, "Take water, lord."
Asraf-el-Kaum plunged the emerald pitcher into the pond, and filled it with water. Then he asked permission to return.
Arriving near the King Chah Djouhou he presented the pitcher to the prince, who seized it quickly and drank.
"Asraf-el-Kaum," said the prince, "where did you find such fresh and delicious water? In all my life I have never drunk the like."
Asraf-el-Kaum answered: "O my lord, sovereign of the world, there is a garden in the middle of the plain, and in this garden there is a very large and bushy fig-tree, and at the foot of this tree there is a pond, and near this pond there is an oratory. At this oratory there was a woman who was reading the Koran. This charmingly beautiful woman has no equal in this world. I saluted her and then returned to the presence of the sovereign of the world. That is what I saw, my lord."
"Conduct me to this place," said the King.
"O sovereign of the world, if your Majesty wishes to go thither, let it be with me alone. Let not my lord take his people with him, for it is a woman, and naturally she would be ashamed."
The prince set out then on horseback with Asraf-el-Kaum. The princess Djouher-Manikam, seeing two cavaliers approach, thought in her heart: "I must hide myself, so that I may not be seen." So she left the oratory and went toward the fig-tree. She addressed a prayer to God the most high and worthy of all praise, in these terms:
"O God, I beseech thee, give me a refuge in this tree, for thy servant,
O Lord, is ashamed to look upon the faces of these infidels."