So the rebel minister started, and entered the tent of the princess, and asked her to marry him. He found her seated by her three children, occupied in chasing away the mosquitoes. When the princess saw him enter her tent she asked him: "O my minister, what brings you to my tent at this hour in the middle of the night?" The minister answered, "I have come to beg you to marry me." The princess then said: "Is that what brings you here? And it was to you that the King intrusted me on account of your great age, and as if you were my father. It was in you that he put all his confidence that you would take us safely, me and my children, to my venerable father, King Haroun-er-Raschid. What must be your nature, that you should so betray his trust?" The wretched minister replied: "If you refuse to marry me, I will kill your children." "Never," said the princess, "never shall I consent to marry you. And if you kill my children, what can I do against the decree of God, save to invoke his name?" The minister killed one of the children. When it was dead, he made the same demand on the princess for the second time, and she answered: "Never shall I consent to marry you." The minister said: "If you refuse, I shall kill another of your children." The Princess Djouher-Manikam answered: "If you slay my child, it is by the decree of God, and I submit to his will." The minister killed the second child. "No," repeated the princess. "Never shall I consent to wed you." The wretched minister said: "Then I will kill your third child." "If you kill him, what can I do but to submit to the will of God, and invoke his name?" The third son of the King was killed. Questioned anew, the princess said again, "Never shall I marry you." And the wicked minister said: "If you will not marry me, I will kill you, too." Then the princess thought in her heart: "If I do not appear to yield, he will kill me, too, without a doubt. I must employ a trick." Then she said: "Await me here, until I wash from my clothes and my body the stains of my children's blood." The minister accursed of God replied: "Very well. I await you here." Then the princess Djouher went out of her tent. The rain was falling in torrents. The princess, fleeing precipitately, walked during the whole night, not knowing where she was going. She had walked many hours when day broke. The princess arrived thus near a tree in the midst of the plain, and, having measured its height with her eyes, she climbed into it. At this moment there passed along the road a merchant who had made his sales and was returning to the city of Bassrah. His name was Biyapri. Passing beneath the tree he raised his eyes and beheld a woman seated in the tree. "Who are you?" he said; "are you woman or djinn?" "I am neither demon nor djinn, but a descendant of the prophet of God (may blessings rest upon him), a disciple of the prophet Mahomet, envoy of God."