“They said, ‘Of which class should the king consider himself one?’ He answered, ‘Let him consider himself of the great sheykhs who have reached God, for it will cause him to be just.’ Then he turned to his brothers and said, ‘O my brothers, ye have put these many questions to me and I have answered the whole of them to the best of my power: I too have a question.’ So they said to him, ‘Ask on.’ Quoth he, ‘What do the kings of the world resemble, and what do their agents resemble, and what do the people resemble, and what do the king’s enemies resemble, and what do the sheykhs resemble?’ Then they both bent their heads and pondered. After a time the prince again said, ‘This is no time for pondering; lo, there the question; lo, there the throne.’ Quoth they, ‘We are unequal to this question.’ Then the king took his youngest son by the hand and seated him on the throne and said, ‘O son, may God ever aid thee and may thy foes be overthrown!’ Then all the nobles of the state and the people came and said, ‘May the throne be blessed!’ And they made him king over them. “Then the king said, ‘O son, do thou answer the question thou puttest to thy brethren, that we may hear.’ Quoth the prince, ‘O my father, this world resembles a pasture, and these people resemble the sheep that wander in that pasture, and the king resembles their shepherd, and the owner of the sheep is God most high, and the nobles resemble that shepherd’s dogs, and the enemy resembles the wolf, and the sheykhs and the wise resemble the guardians appointed by God most high over the shepherd, who forbid the shepherd by the order of God most high whenever he would do evil to the sheep. O father, in very truth I am a feeble shepherd, I see the sheep, and I perceive that even while we say, “Let not them come and hurt the sheep,” we become ourselves partners with the wolf. Should the Owner of the sheep ask us about his lambs, woe, woe to us!’ And he wept full bitterly. The princes acknowledged the sovereignty of their younger brother. “Then the King took up a handful of dust and put it on his eye and said, ‘O eye, how long a time is it I have been king, and how great wealth have I amassed and brought before thee by this much oppression and justice, and thou wast never satisfied! And with how many beauties have I made merry and enjoyed the best of what they had till thou hast lost all pleasure in taking it! And how many delicacies have I eaten and how many sherbets have I drunk, and thou art not content! Why then didst thou not look to these affairs and see not? True is it what they say, “Naught fills the eye save a handful of dust.” Woe, woe, to us!’ And he wept. And all the nobles assembled there were moved to pity and they wept together. Then the king arose and went to his oratory and gave himself up to devotion.