She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Chamberlain accosted the old woman, saying, "What damsel is
this?"; quoth the ancient dame, "Our lady hath a mind to buy
her;" and he rejoined, "None may enter save by leave of the
Commander of the Faithful; so do thou go back with her. I can not
let her pass for thus am I commanded." Replied the old woman, "O
Chief Chamberlain, use thy reason. Thou knowest that Naomi, the
Caliph's slave-girl, of whom he is enamoured, is but now restored
to health and the Commander of the Faithful hardly yet crediteth
her recovery. She is minded to buy this hand maid; so oppose thou
not her entrance, lest haply it come to Naomi's knowledge and she
be wroth with thee and suffer a relapse and this cause thy head
to be cut off." Then said she to Ni'amah, "Enter, O damsel; pay
no heed to what he saith and tell not the Queen-consort that her
Chamberlain opposed thine entrance." So Ni'amah bowed his head
and entered the palace, and would have turned to the left, but
mistook the direction and walked to his right; and, meaning to
count five doors and enter the sixth, he counted six and entering
the seventh, found himself in a place whose floor was carpeted
with brocade and whose walls were hung with curtains of gold-
embroidered silk. And therein stood censers of aloes-wood and
ambergris and strong-scented musk, and at the upper end was a
couch bespread with cloth of gold on which he seated himself,
marvelling at the magnificence he saw and knowing not what was
written for him in the Secret Purpose. As he sat musing on his
case, the Caliph's sister, followed by her handmaid, came in upon
him; and, seeing the youth seated there took him for a slave-girl
and accosted him and said, "Who art thou O damsel? and what is
thy case and who brought thee hither?" He made no reply, and was
silent, when she continued, "O damsel! if thou be one of my