behold, on entering he saw a couch of the whitest ivory, inlaid
with pearls and jacinths and jewels, and four slave-girls
sleeping about it. He went up to the couch, to see what was
thereon, and found a young lady lying asleep, chemised with her
hair[FN#12] as she were the full moon rising[FN#13] over the
Eastern horizon, with flower-white brow and shining hair-paring
and cheeks like blood-red anemones and dainty moles thereon. He
was amazed at her as she lay in her beauty and loveliness, her
symmetry and grace, and he recked no more of death. So he went up
to her, trembling in every nerve and, shuddering with pleasure,
kissed her on the right cheek; whereupon she awoke forthright and
opened her eyes, and seeing the Prince standing at her head, said
to him, "Who art thou and whence comest thou?" Quoth he, "I am
thy slave and thy lover." Asked she, "And who brought thee
hither?" and he answered, "My Lord and my fortune." Then said
Shams al-Nahar[FN#14] (for such was her name), "Haply thou art he
who demanded me yesterday of my father in marriage and he
rejected thee, pretending that thou wast foul of favour. By
Allah, my sire lied in his throat when he spoke this thing, for
thou art not other than beautiful." Now the son of the King of
Hind had sought her in marriage, but her father had rejected him,
for that he was ugly and uncouth, and she thought the Prince was
he. So, when she saw his beauty and grace (for indeed he was like
the radiant moon) the syntheism[FN#15] of love gat hold of her
heart as it were a flaming fire, and they fell to talk and
converse. Suddenly, her waiting-women awoke and, seeing the
Prince with their mistress, said to her, "Oh my lady, who is this
with thee?" Quoth she, "I know not; I found him sitting by me,
when I woke up: haply 'tis he who seeketh me in marriage of my
sire." Quoth they, "O my lady, by Allah the All-Father, this is