When it was the Four Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that 'when the King called to his wife, she came forth from the inner room; and her face beamed like the new moon; and she wore a gown and a veil of wool. Then said the King, 'O my brother, dost thou desire to hear our story or that we should pray for thee and dismiss thee?' Answered the hermit; 'Nay, I wish to hear the tale of you twain, for that to me were preferable.' Said the King, 'My forefathers handed down the throne, one to the other, and it descended from great one to great one, in unbroken succession, till the last died and it came to me. Now Allah had made this hateful to me, for I would fain have gone awandering over earth and left the folk to their own affairs; but I feared
