Thousand & One Nights: Twenty First Night: The King in Search of Mystery

The king walked into the centre of the palace, and looked around. Carpets and leather mats and drapes furnished the floors and windows. There were settees, benches, seats and cushions, as well as cupboards. In the middle, there stood a spacious courtyard, surrounded by four adjoining recessed courts facing each other. In the centre stood a fountain, on top of which crouched four lions in red gold, spouting water from their mouth in droplets that looked like gems and pearls, singing birds fluttered around the fountain. The king was very much astonished, but there was no one to quench his quest. He sat pensively by one of the recessed courts, when he heard moans and lamentations in following verses:

My soul is torn between peril and toil;
O Life, dispatch me, one mighty blow.
My lover ....my lover...O, mylover,
Neither bankrupt nor noble man
Humbled by love's law, do you pity?
Even from breeze I used to guard you
The blow of fate the eyes go blind
But, as he pulls to shoot, the bow
Strings break. What can the Bow
Man can do facing his foes
And when the foes begin to gather 
How can he escape his cruel fate.

The king rose and moved to the source of the voice. He came to a doorway behind a curtain. At the upper end of the room the king saw a young man seated on a chair that rose about twenty inches above the floor. He was handsome with a full figure, clear voice, radiant brow, bright face, downy beard, and ruddy cheeks graced with a mole like a speck of amber. The king as he saw the young man thought of the following verses:
Here is a slender youth, whose hair 
And face envelope with light or Gloom. On his cheek the mark of 
Charm. A dark spot on  red anemone.

The king greeted the young man, who wore a long-sleeved robe of Egyptian silk with gold embroidery; a conical Egyptian head covering. His face was of grief and sorrow. The young man returned his greetings, and said courteously, "Pardon me sir, for not rising. You deserve a greater honour."
The king replied, "You are pardoned. I am only your guest. I came to you on a serious mission." Without further elaboration, he was direct, "Pray tell me the story of gthe lake, the coloured fish, the palace and yourself. I mean why you sit and mourn alone with nobody to console you."
The tears began to flow over his cheeks, and he began to sing the following Mawaliya verses:

Say to the man whom life with arrows shot, how many men have 
felt the blows of fate! If you sleep, 
the eyes of God have not; who can 
say time is fair and life is constant?

Then he wept bitterly. The king asked, "Why do you cry, young man?"
He replied, "How can I withhold my tears in my present condition?" He lifted his robe. The king saw his first half from head to navel was human and the other half from navel to feet was stone. He was half man and half stone.

 End of the Night &  End of the Story








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