power. You are my sovereign and benefactor, and if I should apply the
dust which lies under your auspicious feet, as a colyrium [for my
eyes], then it would become me; but the destinies of every one are
with every one.' The king, on hearing this [speech], became angry;
the reply displeased him highly, and he said with wrath, 'What great
words issue from a little mouth! Now let this be her punishment, that
you strip off whatever jewels she has on her hands and feet, and let
her be placed in a sedan-chair, and set down in such a wilderness,
where no human traces can be found; then we shall see what is written
in her destinies.'

"According to the king's commands, at that midnight hour, when it
was the very essence of darkness, the princess (who had been reared
with such delicacy and tenderness), and had seen no other place
except her own apartments, was carried by the porters in a litter,
and set down in a place where not even a bird ever flapped its wing,
much less did human creatures there exist; they left her there and
returned. The princess's heart was all at once in such a state [as
cannot be conceived]; reduced to what she was, from what she had
been! Then in the threshold of God, she offered up her prayers, and
said, "Thou art so mighty [O Lord], that what thou hast wished, Thou
hast done; and whatever Thou willest, Thou dost; and whatever Thou
mayest wish, that Thou wilt do: whilst life remains in my nostrils,
I shall not be hopeless of [thy protection']. Impressed with these
thoughts, she fell asleep. When the morn appeared, the eyes of the
princess opened; she called for water to perform her ablutions. Then,
all at once, the occurrences of last night came to her recollection;
she said to herself, 'Where art thou, and where this speech?' [222]
Saying this to herself, she got up, and performed the _tayammum_,
[223] said her prayers, and poured forth the praises of her Maker! O