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knowing not that nothing can hinder a woman, when she desires aught, even as says one of the poets:
I rede thee put no Faith in womankind, Nor trust the oaths they lavish all in vain:
For on the satisfaction of their lusts Depend alike their love and their disdain.
They proffer lying love, but perfidy Is all indeed their garments do contain.
Take warning, then, by Joseph’s history, And how a woman sought to do him bane;
And eke thy father Adam, by their fault To leave the groves of Paradise was fain.
Or as another says:
Out on you! blame confirms the blamed one in his way. My fault is not so great indeed as you would say.
If I’m in love, forsooth, my case is but the same As that of other men before me, many a day.
For great the wonder were if any man alive From women and their wiles escape unharmed away!”
When the two kings heard this, they marvelled and said, “Allah! Allah! There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme! We seek aid of God against the malice of women, for indeed their craft is great!” Then she said to them, “Go your ways.” So they returned to the road, and Shehriyar said to Shahzeman, “By Allah, O my brother, this Afrit’s case is more grievous than ours. For this is a genie and stole away his mistress on her wedding night and clapped her in a chest, which he locked with seven locks and sank in the midst of the sea, thinking to guard her from that which was decreed by fate, yet have we seen that she has lain with five hundred and seventy men in his despite, and now with thee and me to boot. Verily, this is a thing that never yet happened to any, and it should surely console us. Let us therefore return to our kingdoms and resolve never again to take a woman to wife; and as for me, I will show
