Then the Vizier rose from off his breast, saying, 'O my son, I forgive thee!' for his heart was softened. Noureddin rose and kissed the hand of his father, who said to him, 'If I knew that thou wouldst deal fairly by Enis el Jelis, I would give her to thee.' 'O my father,' replied Noureddin, 'how should I not deal fairly by her?' Quoth the Vizier, 'O my son, I charge thee not to take another wife nor concubine to share with her nor sell her.' 'O my father,' answered Noureddin, 'I swear to thee that I will do none of these things.' Then he went in to the damsel and abode with her a whole year, whilst God caused the King to forget the affair. The matter, indeed, came to Muin's ears, but he dared not speak of it, by reason of the favour in which the Vizier Fezl stood with the Sultan. At the end of the year, the Vizier Fezl went one day to the bath and coming out, whilst still in a sweat, the air smote him and he caught cold and took to his bed. His malady gained upon him and sleeplessness was long upon him; so he called his son Noureddin and said to him, 'O my son, know that fortune is lotted out and the term of life fixed, and needs must every soul drain the cup of death.' And he repeated the following verses:
I'm dead: yet glory be to Him that dieth not; For that I needs
must die, indeed, full well I wot,
He is no king, who dies with kingship in his hand, For sovranty
belongs to Him that dieth not.
Then he continued, 'O my son, I have no charge to lay on thee, except that thou fear God and look to the issue of thine actions and cherish the damsel Enis el Jelis.' 'O my father,' said Noureddin, 'who is like unto thee? Indeed thou art renowned for the practice of virtue and the praying of the preachers for thee in the pulpits.' Quoth Fezl, 'O my son, I hope for acceptance from God the Most High.' Then he pronounced the two professions of the faith and was numbered among the blessed. The palace was filled with crying and lamentation, and the news of his death reached the King and the people of the city, and even the children in the schools wept for Fezi ben Khacan. Then his son Noureddin arose and took order for his funeral, and the Amirs and Viziers and grandees were present, amongst them the Vizier Muin ben Sawa; and as the funeral train came forth of the palace, one of the mourners recited the following verses:
The fifth day I departed and left my friends alone: They laid me
out and washed me upon a slab of stone;
Then stripped me of the raiment that on my body was, That they
might put upon me clothes other than my own
On four men's necks they bore me unto the place of prayer And
prayed a prayer above me by no prostration known.
Then in a vaulted dwelling they laid me. Though the years Shall
waste, its door will never be open to them thrown.
When they had laid him in the earth, Noureddin returned with the folk; and he lamented with groans and tears and the tongue of the case repeated the following verses:
On the fifth day they departed in the eventide, and I Took of
them the last leave-taking, when they went and left me here.
When they turned away and left me, lo! the soul with them did go.
And I said, "Return." It answered, "Where, alas! should I
recur;
Shall I come back to a body whence the life and blood are flown?
Nothing now but bones are left it, rattling in the
sepulchre.
Lo! my eyes, excess of weeping hath put out their sight, I trow,
And a deafness eke is fallen on my ears: I cannot hear."
He abode a long while in great grief for his father, till one day, as he sat in his house, there came a knocking at the door; so he rose and opening the door, found there a man who had been one of his father's friends and boon-companions. He entered and kissing Noureddin's hand, said to him, 'O my lord, he who has left the like of thee is not dead; and to this pass (death) came even the lord of the first and the last.[FN#108] O my lord, take comfort and leave mourning!' Thereupon Noureddin rose and going to the guest-chamber, transported thither all that he needed. Then his friends gathered together to him and he took his slave-girl again and collecting round him ten of the sons of the merchants, began to eat meat and drink wine, giving entertainment after entertainment and dispensing gifts and favours with a lavish hand, till one day his steward came to him and said, 'O my lord Noureddin, hast thou not heard the saying, "He who spends and does not reckon, becomes poor without knowing it?"' And he repeated the following verses:
I'll hold my money fast, knowing, as well as I know, That 'tis my
sword and shield against my every foe.
If I should lavish it on those who love me not, My luck among the
folk would change to grief and woe.
So I will eat and drink my wealth for my own good Nor upon any
man a single doit bestow.
I will preserve with care my money from all those By nature base
and true to none. 'Tis better so
Than that I e'er should say unto the mean of soul, "Lend me so
much I'll pay to-morrow five-fold mo,"
And see my friend avert his face and turn away, Leaving my soul
cast down, as 'twere a dog's, I trow!
O what a sorry lot is his, who hath no pelf, E'en though his
virtues bright like to the sun should show!
'O my lord,' continued the steward, 'this lavish expense and prodigal giving waste away wealth.' When Noureddin heard his steward's words, he looked at him and said, 'I will not hearken to one word of all thou hast said, for I have heard the following saying of the poet:
If I be blessed with wealth and be not liberal with it, May my
hand wither and my foot eke paralysed remain!
Show me the niggard who hath won glory by avarice! Show me the
liberal man his own munificence hath slain!