accost will point out the house to thee, for that Mubarak is
known throughout the place." When Zayn al-Asnam had read this
writ he cried: "O my mother, 'tis again my desire to wend my way
Cairo-wards and seek out this image; so do thou say how seest
thou my vision, fact or fiction, after thou assuredst me saying,
'This be an imbroglio of sleep?' However, at all events, O my
mother, now there is no help for it but that I travel once more
to Cairo." Replied she, "O my child, seeing that thou be under
the protection of the Apostle of Allah (whom may He save and
assain!) so do thou fare in safety, while I and thy Wazir will
order thy reign in thine absence till such time as thou shalt
return." Accordingly the Prince went forth and gat him ready and
rode on till he reached Cairo where he asked for Mubarak's house.
The folk answered him saying, "O my lord, this be a man than whom
none is wealthier or greater in boon deeds and bounties, and his
home is ever open to the stranger." Then they showed him the way
and he followed it till he came to Mubarak's mansion where he
knocked at the door and a slave of the black slaves opened to
him.--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and First Night,

Quoth Dunyazad, "O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy,
tell us one of thy fair tales, so therewith we may cut short the
waking hours of this our night;" and quoth Shahrazad:--It hath
reached me, O King of the Age, that Zayn al-Asnam knocked at the
door when a slave of Mubarak's black slaves came out to him and
opening asked him, "Who[FN#24] art thou and what is it thou
wantest?" The Prince answered, "I am a foreigner from a far