might be rubbed with oil to release me the sooner from torture.
This was allowed, and those two contrived to be the anointers. I
was put into the fire and it was kept up for seven days and
nights. By the will of the Great King it left no trace upon me.
At the end of a week the pert-king ordered the ashes to be cast
upon the dust-heap, and I was found alive and unharmed.

'Peris who had seen Gul consumed by her love for me now
interceded with the king, and said: "It is clear that your
daughter's fortunes are bound up with his, for the fire has not
hurt him. It is best to give him the girl, for they love one
another. He is King of Waq of Qaf, and you will find none
better."

'To this the king agreed, and made formal marriage between Gul
and me. You now know the price I paid for this faithless
creature. O prince! remember our compact.'

'I remember,' said the prince; ' but tell me what brought Queen
Gul to her present pass?'

'One night,' continued King Sinaubar,'I was aroused by feeling
Gul's hands and feet, deadly cold, against my body. I asked her
where she had been to get so cold, and she said she had had to go
out. Next morning, when I went to my stable I saw that two of my
horses, Windfoot and Tiger, were thin and worn out. I
reprimanded the groom and beat him. He asked where his fault
lay, and said that every night my wife took one or other of these
horses and rode away, and came back only just before dawn. A
flame kindled in my heart, and I asked myself where she could go