Thousand & One Nights: 100th Night
One hundredth night.
Shahrazad continued the story.
The story was originally related by the vizier to his Caliph, Harun al Rashid:
Shams al-Din, the vizier of Cairo approached his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, took him out of the chest, untied him, taking off all his clothes, save a shirt, led him slowly to the door of the room from which the bride had come out to be unveiled before him, and in which he had slept with her and taken her virginity. When Badr al-Din looked at the room, he recognised it, and when he saw the bed, the net, and the chair, he was amazed and bewildered. Advancing one foot and drawing the other back, he rubbed his eyes and said to himself in his confusion, "Glory be to the Almighty! Am I awake or asleep?"
Sit al-Husn lifted the net and said to him, "Ah, my lord, will you not come in? You have stayed too long in the privy; come back to bed!" When Badr al-Din heard her words and saw her face, he smiled in amazement and said, "By God, you are right; I did stay too long in the privy; come back to bed!" But as he entered the bed, he recalled the events of the last ten years, and as he kept looking at the room and recalling those events, he was confounded and felt lost, not knowing what to make of this. He looked at the turban, the robe, and the dagger on the chair, when he went to bed ten years ago and felt the trousers and purse under the mattress, and finally burst out laughing, and said, "By God, this is a good one; by God, this is a good one!" Sit al-Husn asked, "My lord, why do you stare at the room and laugh for no reason?" When he heard her words, he laughed again and asked, "How long have I been absent from you?" She replied, "Ah, may the compassionate and Merciful God preserve you! Ah, haven't you gone out but a while ago to relieve yourself and come back? Have you lost your wits?"
Badr al-Din laughed and said, "By God, lady you are right. I left you, and forgetting myself, fell asleep in the privy. I recall as if I dreamt that I lived in Damascus for ten years, working as a cook, and one day a young boy and his servant visited my shop." Then touching his forehead and feeling the scar from below, he cried out, "No, by God, it must have been true, for the boy hit me with a stone, and cut my forehead open. By God, my friend, it would seem that it really happened." Then he reflected for a while and said, "By God, my lady, it seems to me that when I embraced you and we fell asleep, a little while ago, I dreamt that I went to Damascus without turban and trousers and worked there as a cook." Then he reflected again and said, "My lady, it seems as if I dreamt, that I cooked a pomegranate-seed dish that lacked pepper. Yes my lady, I must have slept in the privy and seen all these in a dream except that it was a long dream."
Sit al-Husn said, "For God's sake, tell me, what else you dreamed?"
Badr al-Din replied, "My lady, had I not awakened they would have crucified me."
She asked, "Crucified? What for?"
He replied, "I cooked a pomegranate-seed dish that lacked pepper. They smashed my dishes, ruined my shop, tied me and shackled me, and put me in a chest. Then they brought a carpenter to make a wooden cross to nail me on. It all happened because the pomegranate-seed dish lacked pepper. Thank God it was all a dream. Sit al-Husn laughed, and pressed him to her bosom and he embraced her. He said, "All were dreams. But I am real, and I am here, hold me."
The Night is Over.
'It is a busy day.' Thought Shahrazad. She said to Dinarzad, "See you tonight."
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