King Beder would not be bid twice. He entered the shop, and sat himself down by the old man. The old man, who had learned from him an account of his misfortunes, knew he must needs want nourishment, therefore immediately presented him with what was necessary to recover his spirits; and, although king Beder was very earnest to know why he gave him that precaution before he entered the shop, he would nevertheless not be prevailed upon to tell him any thing till he had done eating, for fear the sad things he had to relate might balk his appetite. In a word, when he found he ate no longer, he said to him, You have great reason to thank God you got hither without any ill accident. Alas! why? replied king Beder, very much surprised and alarmed. Because, answered he, this city is the city of enchantments, and governed not by a king, but a queen, who is not only one of the finest women of her sex, but likewise a dangerous sorceress. You will be convinced of this, added he, when you come to know that these horses, mules, and other animals that you have seen, are so many men like you and me, whom she has transformed by her diabolical art: and for young men like you only, that come to enter into the city, she has hired servants to stop and bring them, either by good will or force, before her. She receives them with all the seeming civility in the world: she caresses them, she treats and lodges them magnificently, and gives them so many reasons to believe that she loves them, that they think they cannot be mistaken. But she does not suffer them to enjoy long their happiness. Not one of them but she has transformed into some animal or bird, within the space of forty days. You told me those animals presented themselves to oppose your landing, and hinder your entering the city; and I must now tell you they were your friends, and what they did was to make you comprehend the danger you were going to expose yourself to. This account afflicted exceedingly the young king of Persia. Alas! cried he out aloud, to what extremities has my ill fortune reduced me! I am hardly freed from one enchantment, which I look back upon with horror, but I incur another much more terrible to me. This gave him occasion to relate his story to the old man much more at length, and to acquaint him of his birth and quality, his passion for the princess of Samarcand, and her cruelty in changing him into a bird, the very moment he came to see and declare his love to her.