We lay together
till the morning, when I would have gone out; but she came up to
me, laughing, and said, "Thinkest thou that going out of the bath
is the same as going in?[FN#138] Verily, I believe thou deemest
me to be the like of the daughter of Delileh. Beware of such a
thought, for thou art my husband by contract and according to
law. If thou be drunken, return to thy right mind and know that
this house is opened but one day in every year. Go down and look
at the great door." So I went down and found the door locked and
nailed up and returned and told her so. "Know, O Aziz," said she,
"that we have in this house flour and grain and fruits and
pomegranates and sugar and meat and sheep and fowls and so forth,
enough to serve us for many years; and henceforth, the door will
not be opened till after the lapse of a whole year, nor shalt
thou find thyself without till then." Quoth I, "There is no power
and no virtue but in God!" "And what can this irk thee," rejoined
she, "seeing thou knowest the cock's craft, of which I told
thee?" Then she laughed and I laughed too, and I conformed to
what she said and abode with her, plying the cock's craft, eating
and drinking and cricketing, twelve whole months, during which
time she conceived by me and brought me a son. At the end of the
year, I heard the door opened and men came in with manchets and
flour and sugar.
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