55
STORY OF PRINCE SEIF EL MULOUK AND THE PRINCESS BEDIYA EL JEMAL.
There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, a king in Egypt called Aasim ben Sefwan, a liberal and beneficent prince, venerable and majestic. He owned many cities and strengths and fortresses and troops and warriors and had a vizier named Faris ben Salih, and he and all his subjects worshipped the sun and the fire, instead of the All-powerful King, the Glorious, the Victorious. Now this king was become a very old man, wasted with age and sickness and decrepitude; for he had lived a hundred and fourscore years and had no child, male or female, by reason whereof he was ever in care and concern night and day.
One day, he was sitting on the throne of his kingship, with his amirs and viziers and captains and grandees in attendance on him, according to their wont, in their several stations, and whenever there came in an amir, who had with him a son or two sons, the king envied him and said in himself, ‘Every one of these is happy and rejoiceth in his children, whilst I, I have no child, and to-morrow I shall die and leave my kingdom and throne and lands and treasures, and strangers will take them and none will bear me in memory nor will there abide any remembrance of me in the world.’ Then he became drowned in the sea of melancholy thought and for the much thronging of sorrows and anxieties upon his heart, he shed tears and descending from his throne, sat down upon the ground, weeping and humbling himself [in supplication to God].
When the vizier saw him do thus, he cried out to the notables of the realm and others who were present in the
