I can assure your majesty it is the king of Persia, named Beder, son of the celebrated Gulnare, princess of one of the largest kingdoms of the sea, nephew of Saleh, king of that kingdom, and grand-child of queen Farasche, mother of Gulnare and Saleh; and it was the princess Giahaure, daughter of the king of Samarcand, who thus metamorphosed him into a bird. Moreover, that the king might no longer doubt of what she affirmed, she told him the whole story, as how, and for what reason, the princess Giahaure had thus revenged herself for the ill treatment which king Saleh had used towards the king of Samarcand, her father. The king had the less difficulty to believe this assertion of the queen’s, in that he knew her to be a skilful sorceress, perhaps one of the greatest in the world; and as she knew every thing which passed in it, he was always timely informed of the designs of the kings his neighbours against him, and so prevented them. His majesty had compassion on the king of Persia, and therefore earnestly besought his queen to break the enchantment, that he might return to his own form. The queen consented to it with great willingness. Sir, said she to the king, be pleased to take the bird into your closet, and I will show you a thing worthy of the consideration you have for him. The bird, which had never minded eating, by reason of his attentiveness to what the king and queen said, would not give his majesty the trouble to take him, but hopped into the closet before him; and the queen came in soon after, with a pot full of water in her hand. She mumbled over the pot some words, unknown to the king, till such time as the water began to boil; when she took some of it in her hand, and sprinkling a little upon the bird, said, By virtue of these holy and mysterious words I am going to pronounce, and in the name of the Creator both of heaven and earth, who raises the dead, and maintains the universe in its distinct state, quit that form of a bird, and reassume that form which thou receivedst from thy Creator.