a dais[FN#43] furnished with gold-brocaded silk, bordered or embroidered with jewels: and they
found the treasures of the palace past count or description. Then they entered the women's court,
where they came upon a magnificent serraglio and Gharib saw, among the Blue King's woman-
folk a girl clad in a dress worth a thousand dinars, never had he beheld a goodlier. About her
were an hundred slave-girls, upholding her train with golden hooks, and she was in their midst as
the moon among stars. When he saw her, his reason was confounded and he said to one of the
waiting-women, "Who may be yonder maid?" Quoth they, "This is the Blue King's daughter,
Star o' Morn."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Six Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib asked the slave women
saying, "Who may be yonder maid," they replied, "This is Star o' Morn, daughter to the Blue
King." Then Gharib turned to Mura'ash and said to him, "O King of the Jinn, I have a mind to
take yonder damsel to wife." Replied Mura'ash, "The palace and all that therein is, live stock
and dead, are the prize of thy right hand; for, hadst thou not devised a stratagem to destroy the
Blue King and Barkan, they had cut us off to the last one: wherefore the treasure is thy treasure
and the folk thy thralls." Gharib thanked him for his fair speech and going up to the girl, gazed
steadfastly upon her and loved her with exceeding love, forgetting Fakhr Taj the Princess and
even Mahdiyah. Now her mother was the Chinese King's daughter whom the Blue King had
carried off from her palace and perforce deflowered, and she conceived by him and bare this girl,
whom he named Star o' Morn, by reason of her beauty and loveliness; for she was the very
Princess of the Fair. Her mother died when she was a babe of forty days, and the nurses and
eunuchs reared her, till she reached the age of seventeen; but she hated her sire and rejoiced in
his slaughter. So Gharib put his palm to hers[FN#44] and went in unto her that night and found
her a virgin. Then he bade pull down the Pied Palace and divided the spoil with the true-
believing Jinn, and there fell to his share one-and-twenty thousand bricks of gold and silver and
money and treasure beyond speech and count. Then Mura'ash took Gharib and showed him the
Mountain Kaf and all its marvels; after which they returned to Barkan's fortress and dismantled
it and shared the spoil thereof. Then they repaired to Mura'ash's capital, where they tarried five