your majesty, but they are very impatient to pay their respects to
you: and therefore I desire your majesty would be pleased to walk
in, and honour them with your presence.'

'Madam,' said the King of Persia, 'I should be very glad to salute
persons that have the honour to be so nearly related to you, but I
am afraid of the flames that they breathe at their mouths and
nostrils.'

'Sir,' replied the queen, laughing, 'you need not in the least be
afraid of those flames, which are nothing but a sign of their
unwillingness to eat in your palace, without your honouring them
with your presence, and eating with them.'

The King of Persia, encouraged by these words, rose up, and came
out into the room with his Queen Gulnare. She presented him to the
queen her mother, to the king her brother, and to her other
relations, who instantly threw themselves at his feet, with their
faces to the ground. The King of Persia ran to them, and lifting
them up, embraced them one after another. After they were all
seated, King Saleh began: 'Sir,' said he to the King of Persia, 'we
are at a loss for words to express our joy to think that the queen
my sister should have the happiness of falling under the protection
of so powerful a monarch. We can assure you she is not unworthy of
the high rank you have been pleased to raise her to; and we have
always had so much love and tenderness for her, that we could never
think of parting with her to any of the puissant princes of the
sea, who often demanded her in marriage before she came of age.
Heaven has reserved her for you, Sir, and we have no better way of
returning thanks to it for the favour it has done her, than by