her the drugged dish of sweetmeats and she ate thereof; and
hardly had it settled in her stomach when her head fell backward
and she sank on the ground sleeping. With this, the Lady said to
her women, "Carry her up to one of the chambers, till I summon
her"; and they replied, "We hear and we obey." Then said she to
one of her eunuchs, "Fashion me a chest and bring it hitherto to
me!", and shortly afterwards she bade make the semblance of a
tomb and spread the report that Kut al-Kulub had choked and died,
threatening her familiars that she would smite the neck of
whoever should say, "She is alive." Now, behold, the Caliph
suddenly returned from the chase, and the first enquiry he made
was for the damsel. So there came to him one of his eunuchs,
whom the Lady Zubaydah had charged to declare she was dead, if
the Caliph should ask for her and, kissing ground before him,
said, "May thy head live, O my lord! Be certified that Kut al-
Kulub choked in eating and is dead." Whereupon cried Al-Rashid,
"God never gladden thee with good news, O thou bad slave!" and
entered the Palace, where he heard of her death from every one
and asked, "Where is her tomb?" So they brought him to the
sepulchre and showed him the pretended tomb, saying, "This is her
burial-place." When he saw it, he cried out and wept and
embraced it, quoting these two couplets, [FN#232]

"By Allah, O tomb, have her beauties ceased and disappeared from
sight * And is the countenance changed and wan, that shone
so wonder-bright?
O tomb, O tomb, thou art neither heaven nor garden, verily: * How
comes it then that swaying branch and moon in thee unite?

The Caliph, weeping sore for her, abode by the tomb a full hour,