cordiality and said to him, "Blessing hath descended upon us and
this night is the most auspicious of nights in thy coming to us!
But who art thou, O youth, and whence comest thou and whither art
thou bound?" The prince answered him, saying, "I am Zein ul Asnam
and I seek Mubarek, slave to the Sultan of Bassora, who died a
year agone and whose son I am." "What sayst thou? " cried
Mubarek. "Art thou the king's son of Bassora?" "Yea, verily,"
replied Zein ul Asnam; "I am his son." Quoth Mubarek, "Nay, my
lord the king of Bassora left no son; but what is thine age, O
youth?" "About twenty years," replied Zein ul Asnam. "And thou,"
added he, "how long is it since thou wentest out from my father's
house?" "I went out eighteen years agone," answered Mubarek.
"But, O my son Zein ul Asnam, by what token canst thou certify me
that thou art the son of my lord the king of Bassora?" Quoth Zein
ul Asnam, "Thou knowest that my father builded under his palace a
vault and therein [a hall in which] he set forty [FN#60] jars of
fine jade and filled them with ancient gold; [FN#61] and within
this hall he made a second hall, wherein he placed eight images
of precious stones, each wroughten of a single jewel and seated
upon a throne of virgin gold. [FN#62] Moreover, he wrote upon a
curtain of silk there and I read the writ, whereby I found that
he bade me come to thee, saying that thou wouldst acquaint me of
the ninth image and where it is, the which, said he, was worth
the eight, all of them."

When Mubarek heard these words, he threw himself at Zein ul
Asnam's feet and fell to kissing them and saying, "Pardon me, O
my lord! Verily, thou art the son of my lord." Then said he to
the prince, "O my lord, I make to-day a banquet unto all the
chief men of Cairo and I would fain have thy highness honour me