“Straightway the king caused it to be brought into his presence, and he saw it to be a lean and worn black ass, whose back was broken with bearing loads. When the king saw that animal in such plight his heart bled, and he laid his hand on the beast’s face and wept full bitterly and said, ‘See ye how this poor creature has been oppressed in my kingdom?’ And he called for a physician and said to him, ‘Go, tend the wounds of this beast, and give it abundance to eat, and wrap round it a good horse-cloth that it be at ease.’ Now, it is incumbent on kings that they have compassion on the unhappy and the weak, and pity them, and believe not plotters and liars, nor trust their evil wicked words; and such folk are very many. Mayhap my king has not heard the story of the king’s son of Egypt and the crafty woman.” The king said, “Relate it, let us hear.” Quoth the vezir:

Story of the Egyptian Prince

“In the city of Cairo there was a king and he had two sons. One day he reflected on the doings of the cruel sphere and saw how the world was without constancy and remained not to king nor yet to beggar, but trod all under foot. At length he bethought him how it would not endure for himself either; and he took his younger son and made him apprentice to a master tailor, and said, ‘After all, a trade is needful for a man; and they have said that the least knowledge of a trade is better than a hundred thousand sequins.’ So in a short while the prince became a tailor such that there was not in the city of Cairo one who could ply his scissors and needle. One day the king passed to the abiding home, and his elder son became king. His brother the tailor, fearing for his head, fled and went to the Ka’ba.[31]

“While making the circumambulation,[32] his foot struck against something hard, he looked and saw a girdle and took it up and bound it round his loins, and continued the circumambulation. After a while he saw a khoja who had a stone in either hand and who was beating his breast with these stones and crying, ‘Ah woe! alas! I had hidden in that girdle all the wealth I have gained from my youth; whatever Moslem has found it, let him give it me for the love of God and the honor of the Ka’ba, and the half of it shall be lawful for him as his mother’s milk.’

“When the prince saw and heard him he knew that that girdle was his, and he said in his heart, ‘What has this much wealth and the kingdom of my father done for me? and what should this do for me? I shall not let this poor man weep; I shall give it him.’ And he went round and came before the khoja and said, ‘O khoja, I have found that girdle of thine; lo, it is round my loins.’ The khoja clung fast to the prince, and the prince said, ‘What reward wilt thou give me? lo, the girdle is round my loins.’ Then the khoja took the prince and brought him to his own tent; and the prince loosed the girdle from his loins and laid it before the khoja, and the khoja took it and clasped it to his heart. Then he brake the seal and poured out what was in it; and the prince saw it to be full of precious stones.

“The khoja divided these stones into three heaps and said, ‘O youth, wilt thou take one heap with my good-will, or two without it?’ The prince replied, ‘Give me one heap with thy good-will.’ Then the khoja divided one of those heaps into two and said, ‘Which of them wilt thou take with my good-will?’ Again the prince made choice of a heap. At length the khoja said, ‘Youth, wouldest thou have these remaining jewels, or wouldest thou that we go and that I pray for thee under the Golden Spout?’[33] The prince answered, ‘Wealth perishes, but prayers endure; do thou bless me, I have relinquished all these riches.’ And they went, and he held up his hands and said to the prince, ‘Say thou, “Amen.”’ So the youth raised up his hands and the khoja began to pray. He repeated many prayers in himself, and the prince said, ‘Amen.’ The khoja drew his hands down his face and said, ‘O youth, I have prayed much for thee; now go, and may thy end be good.’

“The prince went away; but after a little he thought in himself, ‘If I go now to Cairo my brother will kill me, let me go along with this khoja to Bagdad.’ So he went back to the khoja and said, ‘O khoja, I would go with thee to Bagdad; take me that I may serve thee on the road.’ So the khoja took him; and the prince was in the khoja’s service, and they entered Bagdad and lighted at the khoja’s dwelling. For some days the prince abode there, then he said to the khoja, ‘I may not stay here thus idling; I have a trade, I am a master tailor, if thou hast any tailor friend, pray take me to him that he may give me some work to do.’

“Now the khoja had a tailor friend, and he straightway took the prince and brought him to the shop of that tailor and commended him to him, and the tailor consented. Then the prince sat down and his master cut out cloth for a robe and gave it him; now the prince had checkmated the Cairo tailors, where then were those of Bagdad? The prince sewed that robe and returned it, and the master took it and looked at it and saw that it was a beautiful robe, made so that in all his life he had not seen the like of it, and he said, ‘A thousand times well-done, youth.’ This news spread among the masters, and they all came to that shop and saw it and admired; and this prince became very famous in that country. The work in that master’s shop was now increased tenfold, and customers in like measure. One day that khoja had a quarrel with his wife, and in the greatness of his heat the words of the triple divorce passed his lips.

“Then he repented and would have got back his wife, and his wife also was willing. They sought a legal decision, but the muftī said, ‘It may not be without an intermediary.’[34] The khoja bethought him whom he could get for intermediary when the prince came into his mind, and he said in himself, ‘That stranger youth is he; I shall make him intermediary.’ So he married the woman to the prince. When it was evening he took him and put him into a dark house with the lady; but the lady made shift to light a candle, and as soon as she saw the prince she fell in love with him with all her heart. And the prince as soon as he saw her fell in love with her with all his heart. Then these two moons came together, and, after making merry, the lady showed the prince sumptuous stuffs, and countless gold, and precious stones, such as the tale and number of them cannot be written, and she said, ‘O my life, all this wealth is mine, it is my inheritance from my mother and my father, and all the wealth too that that khoja has is mine; if thou will not dismiss me to-morrow, but accept me as thy legal wife, all this wealth is thine.’

“The prince consented to this proposal, and the woman said, ‘O youth, when the khoja comes to-morrow he will say, “Come, let us go to the cadi;” say thou, “Why should we go to the cadi?” If he say, “Divorce the woman,” do thou reply, “By God, it were shame in us to take a wife and then divorce her.” And he will be unable to find any answer thereto.’ The prince was glad and accepted the lady’s advice. When it was morning the khoja came and knocked at the door, and the prince went forth and kissed the khoja’s hand. The khoja said, ‘Come, let us go to the cadi;’ the prince answered, ‘Why should we go to the cadi?’ Quoth the khoja, ‘Divorce the woman.’ The prince replied, ‘By God, it were mighty shame in us to divorce the woman; I will not divorce her.’ The khoja exclaimed, ‘Ah youth, what word is that? I trusted thee, thinking thee an upright youth, why speakest thou thus?’