Thousand & One Nights: Twenty Sixth Night: The King Frees the Prince

Previous night:

The king in search of the mystery behind the coloured fish and the lake surrounded by hills, entered the room where the black man lay, and killed him. Then he carried him out and threw him into a well. He came back to the room where the black man lay, put on the clothes of black man, covered himself, and lay hiding at the bottom of the tomb, with drawn sword, hidden under his clothes.

The princess came and whipped the prince; she clothed him with coarse hairshirt and covered it with other garments. Then she headed to the spot where the black man lay. She carried the usual cup of broth. She began to weep and wail, "Lover, denying me yourself is not your custom. Do not be stingy. My foes gloat over our separation.  Then she uttered the following verses:
How long the cruel disdain,
Have I not paid with enough tears.
Talk to me, speak to me, answer me.
O lover speak to me, answer me.

The king in disguise, lowered his voice, stammered, and simulating the accent of black people, said, "Ah, ah, ah! There is no power and no strength Save in God the Almighty, the Magnificent." When she heard him speak she screamed with joy and fainted, and when she came to herself, she cried, "Is it true that you spoke to me?" The king in disguise replied, "Damn you, you don't deserve that anyone should speak to you or answer you."

She asked, "What is the cause?"

The king in disguise: "All day long you punish your husband, while he screams for help. From sunset till dwan she cries, implored, and invoke God against you and me, with his defeaning, enervating cries, that deprives me of sleep. If it had not been for this, I would have recovered a long time ago, and this is why I have not spoken to you or answered you."

She: ". My lord if you allow me, I shall deliver him from his present condition."

He: "Deliver him, and rid us of his noise."

She went out of the mausoleum, took a bowl, and filling it with water, uttered a spell over it, and the water began to boil and bubble as in a caldron over fire. Then she sprinkled the young man with the water and said, "by the power of my spell if the creator has created you in this form, or if he has turned you into this form out of anger at you, stay as you are, but if you have have been transformed by magic and cunning, turn back to your normal form, by the will of God, creator of the world." The young man shook himself at once, and stood up, erect and sound and he rejoiced and thanked God for his deliverance. The princess said, "Get out of my sight and don't ever come back." He went away.

Then she returned to the mausoleum. She called out, "My sweet lord come out and let me see you."
The king in disguise said in muffled voice, "You have rid me off the limb, but failed to rid me of the body."

The princess: "My sweet lord, what do you mean by the body?"
 
King in disguise: "Damn you, cursed woman, it is the inhabitants of this city and its four islands, for every midnight, the fish raise their heads from the lake to implore and invoke  God against me, and this is why I do not recover. Go to them and deliver them at once; then come back to hold my hand, and help me rise, for I am beginning to feel better already."

She was fully rejoiced at this and replied, "Yes my Lord, with the help of God, my sweetheart." Then she rose, went to the lake, and took a little of its water.

End of the Night 


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