I abode with her a month, after which I returned to the Shaykh and said to him, 'I want the forty dinar one.' 'Weigh out the money,' said he. So I weighed out to him twelve hundred dinars, the mensual hire, and abode with her one month as it were one day, for what I saw of the comeliness of her semblance and the goodliness of her converse. After this I went to the Shaykh one evening and heard a great noise and loud voices; so I asked him, 'What is to do?'; and he answered, saying, 'This is the night of our remarkablest nights, when all souls embark on the river and divert themselves by gazing one upon other. Hast thou a mind to go up to the roof and solace thyself by looking at the folk?' 'Yes,' answered I, and went up to the terrace roof,[FN#284] whence I could see a gathering of people with flambeaux and cressets, and great mirth and merriment. Then I went up to the end of the roof and beheld there, behind a goodly curtain, a little chamber in whose midst stood a couch of juniper-wood[FN#285] plated with shimmering gold and covered with a handsome carpet. On this sat a lovely young lady, confounding all beholders with her beauty and comeliness and symmetry and perfect grace, and by her side a youth, whose hand was on her neck; and he was kissing her and she kissing him. When I saw them, O Prince of True Believers, I could not contain myself nor knew where I was, so dazed and dazzled was I by her beauty: but, when I came down, I questioned the damsel with whom I was and described the young lady to her. 'What wilt thou with her?' asked she; and I, 'She hath taken my wit.' 'O Abu al-Hasan, hast thou a mind to her?' 'Ay, by Allah! for she hath captivated my heart and soul.' 'This is the daughter of Tahir ibn al-Alaa; she is our mistress and we are all her handmaids; but knowest thou, O Abu al-Hasan, what be the price of her night and her day?' 'No!' 'Five hundred dinars, for she is a regret to the heart of Kings!'[FN#286] 'By Allah, I will spend all I have on this damsel!' So saying I lay, heartsore for desire, through the livelong night till the morning, when I repaired to the Hammam and presently donned a suit of the richest royal raiment and betaking myself to Ibn al-Alaa, said to him, 'O my lord, I want her whose night is five hundred dinars.' Quoth he, 'Weigh down the money.' So I weighed out to him fifteen thousand dinars for a month's hire and he took them and said to the page, 'Carry him to thy mistress such an one!' Accordingly he took me and carried me to an apartment, than which my eyes never saw a goodlier on the earth's face and there I found the young lady seated. When I saw her, O Commander of the Faithful, my reason was confounded with her beauty, for she was like the full moon on its fourteenth night,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Nine Hundred and Fiftieth Night,