When he heard these words he again asked, "Dost thou know him?" and she answered, "He? Verily we wot him not;"[FN#176] and repeated the saying to him a second time: withal he by no means understood her. So quoth she, "How canst thou administer the Sultanate and yet fail to comprehend my simple words? For indeed I have made the case clear to thee." Hereupon he fathomed the secret of the saying and flew to her in his joy and clasped her to his bosom and kissed her upon the cheeks. But his mother turned to him and said, "O my son, do not on this wise, for everything hath its time and season;"?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 Seventy-fourth 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 Sultan's mother said, "O my son, everything hath its time and season; and whoso hurrieth a matter before opportunity befit shall be punished with the loss of it." But he replied, "By Allah, O my mother, thy suspicion be misplaced: I acted thus only on my gratitude to her, for assuredly she is the Knight who came to my aidance and who saved me from death." And his mother excused him. They passed that night in converse and next day at noontide the King sought the Divan in order to issue his commandments; but when the assembly filled the room and became as a garden of bloom the Lords of the land said to him, "O King of the Age, 'twere not suitable that thou become Sultan except thou take to thee a wife; and Alhamdolillah?laud to the Lord who hath set thee on the necks of His servants and who hath restored the realm to thee as successor of thy sire. There is no help but that thou marry." Quoth he, "To hear is to consent;" then he arose without stay or delay and went in to his mother and related to her what had happened. Quoth she, "O my son, do what becometh thee and Allah prosper thy affairs!" He said to her, "O my mother, retire thou with the maiden and persuade her to marriage for I want none other and I love not aught save herself," and said she, "With joy and gladness." So he went from her and she arose and was private with the damsel when she addressed her, "O my lady, the King desireth to wed thee and he wanteth none other and he seeketh not aught save thee." But the Princess hearing this exclaimed, "How shall I marry, I who have lost my kith and