[FN#81] i.e. "him who is to me even as mine own soul," to wit, the king.
[FN#82] The whole of this story (which is apparently intended as an example of the flowery style (el bediya) of Arab prose) is terribly corrupt and obscure, and in the absence of a parallel version, with which to collate it, it is impossible to be sure that the exact sense has been rendered.
[FN#83] Breslau Text, vol xi. pp. 321-99, Nights dccccxxx-xl.
[FN#84] i.e. the first or Beherite dynasty of the Mameluke
Sultans, the founder of which was originally a Turkish (i.e.
Turcoman) slave.
[FN#85] Fourth Sultan of the above dynasty.
[FN#86] i.e. Palestine (Es Sahil) so styled by the Arabs.
[FN#87] Lit. his nightly entertainers, i.e. those whose place it was to entertain him by night with the relation of stories and anecdotes and the recitation of verses, etc.
[FN#88] i.e. the perfect of police.
[FN#89] About fifty shillings.
[FN#90] i.e. those of the visible and invisible worlds.