at him, to kill him, for he is a crafty magician?"; and quoth
she, "He is in a garden by name Al-Mushayyad,[FN#38] and there is
no help but that I slay him before long." Then said her sister,
"Sooth spake Hasan in everything he hath recounted to us of this
cur; but now tell him our tale, that all of it may abide in his
memory." So the younger said to him, "Know, O my brother, that
we are the daughters of a King of the mightiest Kings of the
Jann, having Marids for troops and guards and servants, and
Almighty Allah blessed him with seven daughters by one wife; but
of his folly such jealousy and stiff-neckedness and pride beyond
compare gat hold upon him that he would not give us in marriage
to any one and, summoning his Wazirs and Emirs, he said to them,
'Can ye tell me of any place untrodden by the tread of men and
Jinn and abounding in trees and fruits and rills?' And quoth
they, 'What wilt thou therewith, O King of the Age?' And quoth
he, 'I desire there to lodge my seven daughters.' Answered they,
'O King, the place for them is the Castle of the Mountain of
Clouds, built by an Ifrit of the rebellious Jinn, who revolted
from the covenant of our lord Solomon, on whom be the peace!
Since his destruction, none hath dwelt there, nor man nor Jinni,
for 'tis cut off[FN#39] and none may win to it. And the Castle
is girt about with trees and fruits and rills, and the water
running around it is sweeter than honey and colder than snow:
none who is afflicted with leprosy or elephantiasis[FN#40] or
what not else drinketh thereof but he is healed forthright.
Hearing this our father sent us hither, with an escort of his
troops and guards and provided us with all that we need here.
When he is minded to ride to us he beateth a kettle-drum,
whereupon all his hosts present themselves before him and he
chooseth whom he shall ride and dismisseth the rest; but, when he