this host's taking the field was that the King of Al-Irak, the
father of the three maidens, after he appointed the ship and saw
her set out, felt uneasy at heart, presaging evil, and feared
with sore fear the shifts of Time. So he went forth, he and his
high Officials and his host, and marched adown the longshore
till, by decree of the Decreer, he suddenly and all unexpectedly
came upon his Queen who was under charge of the ship's captain.
Presently, seeing the cavalcade and its ensigns the Rais went
forward and recognising the King hastened up to him and kissed
his stirrup and his feet. The Sultan turned towards him and knew
him; so he asked him of his state and the Rais answered by
relating all that had befallen him. Thereupon the King commanded
his power to alight in that place and they did so and set up
their tents and pavilions. Then the Sultan took seat in his
Shamiyanah[FN#174] and bade them bring his Queen and they brought
her, and when eye met eye the pair greeted each other fondly and
the father asked concerning her three children. She declared that
she had no tidings of them after the shipwreck and she knew not
whether they were dead or alive. Hereat the King wept with sore
weeping and exclaimed, "Verily we are Allah's and unto Him we are
returning!" after which he gave orders to march from that place
upon his capital. Accordingly they stinted not faring for a space
of four days till they reached the city and he entered his
citadel-palace. But every time and every hour he was engrossed in
pondering the affair of the three Princesses and kept saying,
"Would heaven I wot are they drowned or did they escape the sea;
and, if they were saved, Oh, that I knew whether they were
scattered or abode in company one with other and whatever else
may have betided them!" And he ceased not brooding over the issue
of things and kept addressing himself in speech; and neither meat