say her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Ninetieth Night,

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Lady Miriam left the new palace, she went straightways to meet
her lover for indeed she was as valiant as she was strong; but
Nur al-Din the distracted, the full of teen, sat at the city-gate
hending the horses' halters in hand, till Allah (to whom belong
Majesty and Might) sent a sleep upon him and he slept-glory be to
Him who sleepeth not! Now at that time the Kings of the Islands
had spent much treasure in bribing folk to steal the two steeds
or one of them; and in those days there was a black slave, who
had been reared in the islands skilled in horse-lifting;
wherefore the Kings of the Franks seduced him with wealth galore
to steal one of the stallions and promisted him, if he could
avail to lift the two, that they would give him a whole island
and endue him with a splendid robe of honour. He had long gone
about the city of France in disguise, but succeeded not in taking
the horses, whilst they were with the King; but, when he gave
them in free gift to the Wazir and the monocular one carried them
to his own stable, the blackamoor thief rejoiced with joy
exceeding and made sure of success, saying in himself, "By the
virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, I will
certainly steal the twain of them!" Now he had gone out that very
night, intending for the stable, to lift them; but, as he walked
along, behold, he caught sight of Nur al-Din lying asleep, with
the halters in his hands. So he went up to the horses and loosing
the halters from their heads, was about to mount one of them and
drive the other before him, when suddenly up came the Princess