first to give the King joy, and the King proclaimed a general
pardon and opening the prisons, released those who were therein
prisoned. Moreover, he made banquets for the people, with great
abundance of eating and drinking, for seven days and nights and
all creatures were gladsomest; and he took horse with his son and
rode out with him, that the folk might see him and rejoice. After
awhile the Prince asked about the maker of the horse, saying, "O
my father, what hath fortune done with him?"; and the King
answered, "Allah never bless him nor the hour wherein I set eyes
on him! For he was the cause of thy separation from us, O my son,
and he hath lain in gaol since the day of thy disappearance."
Then the King bade release him from prison and, sending for him,
invested him in a dress of satisfaction and entreated him with
the utmost favour and munificence, save that he would not give
him his daughter to wife; whereat the Sage raged with sore rage
and repented of that which he had done, knowing that the Prince
had secured the secret of the steed and the manner of its motion.
Moreover, the King said to his son, "I reck thou wilt do will not
to go near the horse henceforth and more especially not to mount
it after this day; for thou knowest not its properties, and
belike thou art in error about it." Not the Prince had told his
father of his adventure with the King of Sana'a and his daughter
and he said, "Had the King intended to kill thee, he had done so;
but thine hour was not yet come." When the rejoicings were at an
end, the people returned to their places and the King and his son
to the palace, where they sat down and fell to eating and
drinking and making merry. Now the King had a handsome handmaiden
who was skilled in playing the lute; so she took it and began to
sweep the strings and sing thereto before the King and his son of
separation of lovers, and she chanted the following verses:--