The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume II
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume II
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Meanwhile, King Shehriman went in to his daughter, the Princess
Dunya, and found her weeping and lamenting for Taj el Mulouk.
Moreover, she had taken a sword and fixed the hilt in the earth,
with the point to her heart between her breasts; and she bent
over it, saying, 'Needs must I kill myself and not live after my
beloved.' When her father entered and saw her in this case, he
cried out, 'O princess of kings' daughters, hold thy hand and
have compassion on thy father and the people of thy realm!' Then
he came up to her and said, 'God forbid that an ill thing should
befall thy father for thy sake!' And he told her that her lover
was the son of King Suleiman Shah and sought her to wife and that
the marriage waited only for her consent; whereat she smiled and
said, 'Did I not tell thee that he was a king's son? By Allah, I
must let him crucify thee on a piece of wood worth two dirhems!'
'O my daughter,' answered the King, 'have mercy on me, so may God
have mercy on thee!' 'Harkye,' rejoined she, 'make haste and
bring him to me without delay.' The King replied, 'On my head and
eyes be it,' and returning in haste to Taj el Mulouk, repeated
her words in his ear. So he arose and accompanied the King to the
princess, who caught hold of him and embraced him in her father's
presence and kissed him, saying, 'Thou hast made me a weary
woman!' Then she turned to her father and said to him, 'Sawst
thou ever any do hurt to the like of this fair creature, more by
token that he is a king, the son of a king, and of the free-bon,
guarded against abominations?' Therewith Shehriman went out and
shutting the door on them with his own hand, returned to the
Vizier and the other envoys and bade them report to their King
that his son was in health and gladness and enjoying all delight
of life with his beloved. So they returned to King Suleiman and
acquainted him with this, whereat he rejoiced and exclaimed,
'Praised be God who hath brought my son to his desire!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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