His criticism should be criticised, And his misuse of language makes me smile, Even misspelling he is guilty of. His very letters does he scarcely know, His very pen itself cannot run straight, His knotted fingers scarce can hold the pen. Now, Fasli, comes at length thy poem’s end. Thank God for all the beauty of thy lays. Leave poetry and turn thy mind to God, And thank him thou hast reached the colophon. Thy book is one of happiness and bliss, In lovers’ bosoms it will oft be borne. And now the numbered verses thus conclude The story of the Rose and Nightingale. HISTORY OF THE FORTY VEZIRS INTRODUCTION It is related that the wife of a great king unjustly accused his son, by another mother, of an act of treachery against his father; and that that king was wroth, and for forty mornings caused his son to be led forth to be slain; and that that king had many vezirs, all of whom were peerless in the sea of understanding, and in thoughtfulness and sagacity, and full of plans and devices; and that when the king each morning caused his son to be led forth for execution, these vezirs gave the king counsel, and each morning a vezir, telling a story, calmed the king’s heart and turned away his wrath, and saved the prince from his hand; and again, that each night that crafty lady, letting not the king rest, ever incited him to the slaughter of the prince, and with enticing and beguiling words, repeated each night a story to the king, and made his understanding forsake him; and that through the words of that crafty lady, every morning for forty days he caused his son to be led into his presence to be slain; and that the vezirs by telling a story delivered him. After forty days the innocence of the prince was manifested and the falsehood and calumny of the crafty lady disclosed; and she received her due, and the prince was greatly loved and esteemed before his father when the truth of his affair was known. The adventures of the king, and the lady and the prince, and his governor and the vezirs, and what befell between them, will be related; and sixteen of the stories told by the vezirs in the forty days, and by the lady in the forty nights will be set forth and narrated. “With God is grace: how excellent a friend is he!”