Then said the damsel, "O my lord, mount this
throne." So he seated himself on it, and she withdrew: and when
she had been absent awhile, he asked the servants of her, and
they said, "She hath gone to her sleeping-chamber; but we will
serve thee as thou shalt order." So they set before him rare
meats and he ate till he was satisfied, when they brought him a
basin of gold and an ewer of silver, and he washed his hands.
Then his mind reverted to his troops, and he was troubled,
knowing not what had befallen them in his absence and thinking
how he had forgotten his father's injunctions, so that he abode
oppressed with anxiety and repenting of what he had done, till
the dawn broke and the day appeared, when he lamented and sighed
and became drowned in the sea of melancholy, repeating the
following verses:
I lack not of prudence and yet in this case I've been fooled; so
what shift shall avail unto me?
If any could ease me of love and its stress, Of my might and my
virtue I'd set myself free.
But alas! my heart's lost in the maze of desire, And no helper
save God in my strait can I see.
Hardly had he finished, when up came more than twenty damsels
like moons, encompassing the young lady, who appeared amongst
them as the full moon among stars. She was clad in royal brocade
and girt with a woven girdle set with various kinds of jewels,
that straitly clasped her waist and made her buttocks stand out
as they were a hill of crystal upholding a wand of silver; and
her breasts were like double pomegranates.
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