The Third Day.



Of the Advantages of Patience.[FN#164]



When it was the third day, the third Wazir came in to the king
and said to him, "O king, delay not the matter of this youth,
because his deed hath caused us fall into the mouths of folk, and
it behoveth that thou slay him forthright, that the talk may be
cut from us and it be not said, 'The king saw on his bed a man
with his wife and spared him.'" The king was chagrined by these
words and bade bring the youth. Accordingly, they fetched him in
fetters, and indeed the king's anger was upstirred against him by
the Minister's speech and he was troubled; so he said to him, "O
base of birth, thou hast dishonoured us and marred our mention,
and needs must I do away thy life from the world." Quoth the
youth, "O king, make use of patience in all thine affairs, so
wilt thou win to thy wish, for that Allah Almighty hath appointed
the issue of long-suffering to be in abounding good, and indeed
by patience Abu Sabir ascended from the pit and sat down upon the
throne." Asked the king, "Who was Abu Sabir, and what is his
tale?" and the youth answered, saying, "Hear thou, O king,