taketh precaution may never flee from destiny. And how well said the poet in this poetry, "Whatso is not to be shall ne'er become; * No wise! and that to be must come to pass; Yea it shall come to pass at time ordained, * And th' Ignoramus[FN#173] aye shall cry Alas!'" Whereupon quoth the King, "O Shahrazad, recount me other of these tales!"; and quoth she, "I will do so during the coming night, if life be granted to by the King whom Allah bring to honour!"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-third Night, She said:—I will relate the TALE OF ALI BIN BAKKAR AND OF SHAMS AL-NAHAR. It hath reached me, O august King, that in days of yore and in times and ages long gone before, during the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid, there was a merchant who named his son Abú al-Hasan[FN#174] Ali bin Táhir; and the same was great of goods and grace, while his son was fair of form and face and held in favour by all folk. He used to enter the royal palace without asking leave, for all the Caliph's concubines and slave-girls loved him, and he was wont to be companion with Al-Rashid in his cups and recite verses to him and tell him curious tales and witty. Withal he sold and bought in the merchants' bazar, and there used to sit in his shop a youth named Ali bin Bakkár, of the sons of the Persian Kings[FN#175] who was formous of form and symmetrical of shape and perfect of figure, with cheeks red as roses and joined eyebrows; sweet of speech, laughing-lipped and delighting in mirth and gaiety. Now it chanced one day, as the two sat talking and laughing behold, there came up ten damsels like moons, every one of them complete in beauty and loveliness, and elegance and grace; and amongst them was a young lady riding on a she-mule with a saddle of brocade and stirrups of gold. She wore an outer veil of fine stuff, and her waist was girt with a girdle of gold-embroidered silk; and she was even as saith the poet, "Silky her skin and silk that zoned waist; * Sweet voice; words not o'er many nor too few: Two eyes quoth Allah 'Be,' and they became; * And work like wine on hearts they make to rue: O love I feel! grow greater every night: * O solace! Doom-day bring our interview." And when the cortčge reached Abu al-Hasan's shop, she alighted from her mule, and sitting down on the front board,[FN#176] saluted him, and he returned her salam. When Ali bin Bakkar saw her, she ravished his understanding and he rose to go away; but she said to him, "Sit in thy place. We came to thee and thou goest away: this is not fair!" Replied he, "O my lady, by Allah, I flee from what I see; for the tongue of the case saith, 'She is a sun which towereth high a-sky; * So ease thy heart with cure by Patience lent: Thou to her skyey height shalt fail to fly; * Nor she from skyey height can make descent.'"