handsome stuffs." Quoth the Princess, "Show me that same"; and
the old woman, "O apple of my eye, here it is, turn it over and
examine it." Now when the Princess looked at it she was amazed
and said, "O my nurse, this is indeed handsome stuff: I have
never seen its like in our city." "O my lady," replied the old
nurse, "he who sold it me is handsomer still. It would seem as
if Rizwan had left the gates of Paradise open in his
carelessness, and as if the youth who sold me this stuff had come
bodily out of Heaven. I would he might sleep this night with
thee and might lie between thy breasts.[FN#30] He hath come to
thy city with these precious stuffs for amusement's sake, and he
is a temptation to all who set eyes on him." The Princess laughed
at her words and said, "Allah afflict thee, O pernicious old hag!
Thou dotest and there is no sense left in thee." Presently, she
resumed, "Give me the stuff that I may look at it anew." So she
gave it her and she took it again and saw that its size was small
and its value great. It pleased her, for she had never in her
life seen its like, and she exclaimed, "By Allah, this is a
handsome stuff!" Answered the old woman, "O my lady, by Allah!
if thou sawest its owner thou wouldst know him for the handsomest
man on the face of the earth." Quoth the Lady Dunya, "Didst thou
ask him if he had any need, that he might tell us and we might
satisfy it?" But the nurse shook her head and said, "The Lord
keep thy sagacity! By Allah, he hath a want, may thy skill not
fail thee. What! is any man free from wants?" Rejoined the
Princess, "Go back to him and salute him and say to him, 'Our
land and town are honoured by thy visit and, if thou have any
need, we will fulfil it to thee, on our head and eyes.' " So the
old woman at once returned to Taj al-Muluk, and when he saw her
his heart jumped for joy and gladness and he rose to his feet