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seems not joy to her, nor sorrow whon it is heaped on sorrow, as a tale she looks on misfortune and happiness alike; she is elsewhere, elsewhere she soars, her mind is like a dove's.
1163. "'God grant my son come home victorious. I will have for his home-coming this sun ready for him; perchance he will make her say something,[1] and we also shall know what is revealed; till then, let the moon rest with waning ray far sundered from the sun.'
1164. "Of the king's son I will tell thee: a good, fearless youth, peerless in valour and beauty, fair in face and form; at that time he was gone forth to war, there had he tarried long; for him his father prepared her, the starlike one.
1165. "They brought her and apparelled her form in maidenly garb; on it was seen many a ray of glittering gems, on her head they set a crown of a whole ruby, there the rose was beautified by the colour of the transparent crystal (of her face).
1166. "The king commanded: 'Deck the chamber of the princess royal.' They set up a couch of gold, of red[2] of the Occident.[3] The great king[4] himself, the lord of the whole palace, arose and set thereon that sun, the joy of the heart of beholders.
1167. "He commanded nine[5] eunuchs[6] to stand guard at the door. The king sat down to a feast befitting their race; to Usen he gave immeasurable (gifts) as a return[7] for that peer of the sun; they made trumpet[8] and kettledrum[9] to sound for the increasing of the noise.
1168. "They prolonged the feasting; the drinking went on exceeding long. The sun-faced maiden says to Fate: 'What a murderous fate have I! Whence am I come
- ↑ Nut'hu ra; Ch., nu t'hura.
- ↑ Tsit'heli, red, synonym for gold; 723, 998.
- ↑ Maghribuli, A., ? Moroccan.
- ↑ 1145 for the Persian title, cf. "exalted king," 1198, 1240.
- ↑ Nine is the favoured number in folk-tales; 1022, 1441.
- ↑ Khadumi, A., 465, 1170, 1218.
- ↑ Mukap'ha, A., 487, 1445.
- ↑ Buci, P. 405.
- ↑ Tablaci, P., 435, 1156, 1484.