unrevealed, thy daughter." But when the Shaykh al-Islam heard
from me these words he bowed his head for awhile groundwards--And
Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and
ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad,
"How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and
delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I
would relate to you on the coming night, an the Sovran suffer me
to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was

The Three Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting
and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the youth
resumed:--Now when the Shaykh al-Islam heard from me those words
he bowed his brow groundwards for a while in deep thought
concerning the case of his daughter who was a cripple and
wondrously deformed. For the damsel who had told me of her had
played me a trick and served me a sleight, I all the time knowing
nothing about her guile. Presently he raised his head and said to
me, "By Allah, O my son, I have a daughter but she is helpless."
Quoth I, "I am content;" and quoth he, "An thou take her to wife
after this description, 'tis on express condition that she be not
removed from my house and thou also shalt pay her the first visit
and cohabit with her in my home." I replied, "To hear is to
obey;" being confident, O King of the Age, that she was the
damsel who had visited my shop and whom I had seen with my own