"O my friend, who hath made thee Sultan?"
Zoulmekan laughed at him and the Vizier, coming up to him,
expounded the whole story to him and said, "He was thy brother
and thy friend; and now he is King of the land and needs must
thou get great good of him. So I counsel thee, if he say to thee,
'Ask a boon of me,' ask not but for some great thing; for thou
art very dear to him." Quoth the stoker, "I fear lest, if I ask
of him aught, he may not choose to grant it or may not be able
thereto." "Have no care," answered the Vizier; "whatsoever thou
asketh, he will give thee." "By Allah," rejoined the stoker, "I
must ask of him a thing that is in my thought! Every night I
dream of it and implore God to vouchsafe it to me." "Take heart,"
said the Vizier. "By Allah, if thou askedst of him the government
of Damascus, in the room of his brother he would surely give it
thee." With this, the stoker rose to his feet and Zoulmekan
signed to him to sit; but he refused, saying, "God forfend! The
days are gone by of my sitting in thy presence." "Not so,"
answered the Sultan; "they endure even now. Thou wert the cause
that I am now alive, and by Allah, what thing soever thou askest
of me, I will give it to thee! But ask thou first of God, and
then of me." "O my lord," said the stoker, "I fear...," "Fear
not," quoth the Sultan. "I fear," continued he, "to ask aught and
that thou shouldst refuse it to me.
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