My name
is Merjaneh and thy mother's name was Abrizeh. She was gifted
with such beauty and grace and valour that proverbs were made of
her, and her prowess was renowned among men of war. Thy father
was King Omar ben Ennuman, lord of Baghdad and Khorassan. He sent
his son Sherkan on an expedition, in company with this very
Vizier Dendan; and Sherkan thy brother separated himself from the
troops and fell in with thy mother Queen Abrizeh, in a privy
garden of her palace, whither we had resorted to wrestle, she and
I and her other damsels. He came on us by chance and wrestled
with thy mother, who overcame him by the splendour of her beauty
and her valour. Then she entertained him five days in her palace,
till the news of this came to her father, by the old woman
Shewahi, surnamed Dhat ed Dewahi, whereupon she embraced Islam at
Sherkan's hands and he carried her by stealth to Baghdad, and
with her myself and Rihaneh and other twenty damsels. When we
came to thy father's presence, he fell in love with thy mother
and going in to her one night, foregathered with her, and she
became with child by him of thee. Now thy mother had three
jewels, which she gave to thy father, and he gave one of them to
his daughter Nuzhet ez Zeman, another to thy brother Zoulmekan
and the third to thy brother Sherkan. This last thy mother took
from Sherkan, and I kept it for thee.
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