The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries
"for right is thy recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso
thou sayest." So they agreed upon this and quoth Shams al-Din, "If
Allah decree that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same
night, and they shall conceive on their bride-nights and bear children
to us on the same day, and by Allah's will thy wife bear thee a son and
my wife bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they
will be cousins." Quoth Nur al-Din, "O my brother, Shams al-Din, what
dower[365] wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?" Quoth Shams
al-Din, "I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens
and three farms; and it would not be seemly that the youth make
contract for less than this." When Nur al-Din heard such demand he
said, "What manner of dower is this thou wouldest impose upon my son?
Wottest thou not that we are brothers and both by Allah's grace Wazirs
and equal in office? It behoveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son
without marriage settlement; or, if one need be, it should represent a
mere nominal value by way of show to the world: for thou knowest that
the masculine is worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and
our memory will be preserved by him, not by thy daughter." "But what,"
said Shams al-Din, "is she to have?"; and Nur al-Din continued,
"Through her we shall not be remembered among the Emirs of the earth;
but I see thou wouldest do with me according to the saying:—An thou
wouldst bluff off a buyer, ask him high price and higher; or as did a
man who, they say, went to a friend and asked something of him being in
necessity and was answered:—Bismillah,[366] in the name of Allah, I
will do all what thou requirest but come to-morrow!" Whereupon the
other replied in this verse:—
When he who is asked a favour saith "To-morrow," ✿ The wise man wots
'tis vain to beg or borrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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