I do accept of it with all my heart, replied the queen, receiving it, and will eat it cheerfully for yours and your good uncle’s sake: but before I taste of it, I desire you will eat a piece of mine, which I have made for you during your absence. Fair queen, answered king Beder, receiving it with great respect, such hands as your majesty’s can never make any thing but what is excellent; and the favour hereby done me will exact an eternal acknowledgment. King Beder then substituted, in the place of the queen’s cake, the other which old Abdallah had given him, and having broken off a piece, he put it to his mouth, and cried, while he was eating, Ah! queen, I never tasted any thing so charming in my life. They being near a cascade, the sorceress seeing him swallow one bit of the cake, and ready to eat another, she took a little water in the palm of her hand, and throwing it on the king’s face, said, Wretch! quit that form of a man thou bearest, and take that of a vile horse, lame and blind. These words not having the desired effect, the sorceress was strangely surprised to find king Beder still in the same form, and that he only started, being a little frightened. Blushes came suddenly into her cheeks; and as she saw that she had missed her aim, Dear Beder, cries she, this is nothing, recover thyself; I did not intend thee any harm; what I did, was only to see what thou wouldst say. I should be the most miserable and execrable of women, should I attempt aught against thy tranquillity; I do not only say, after all the oaths I made to the contrary, but even after so many testimonies of love as I have given thee. Puissant queen, replied king Beder, however well satisfied I were, that what your majesty did was only to divert yourself, yet I could not help being a little frightened with the surprise. Also, what could hinder me from being a little moved at the pronouncing of such terrible words, as are capable of making so strange a transformation? But, madam, continued he, let us set aside this discourse; and since I have ate of your cake, I desire you would do me the like favour by tasting of mine. Queen Labe, who could no better justify herself than by putting this confidence in the king of Persia, broke off a piece of his cake and ate it; which she had no sooner done, than she appeared much troubled, and remained, as it were, motionless. King Beder, seeing his time, took water out of the same basin she had done, and, throwing it in her face, cried, Abominable sorceress! quit that form of a woman, and be turned instantly into a mare.