he hoped in God, after hope had been cut off, that he should see his wife once more. And he began to consider the mysterious workings of God (glory to his omnipotence!), and how the Ring had cheered him, when all hope would have died had not God aided him with the Slave of the Ring. So he rejoiced, and all his tribulation left him. And as he had gone four days without sleep, from the heaviness of his grief and anxiety and excess of pondering, he went beside the palace and slept under a tree; for, as hath been said, the palace was amid the gardens of Africa outside the city.
That night he slept beside the palace under a tree in perfect repose, though he whose head belongeth to the headsman sleepeth not of nights save when drowsiness compelleth him. But for the space of four days sleep had deserted him. So he slept till broad day, when he was awakened by the warbling of birds, and arose and went to the river there, which flowed to the city, and washed his hands and face, and performed the ablutions, and said the morning- prayer. And when he had done praying he returned and sat under the window of the apartment of the Lady Bedr-el-Budur. Now she, in the excess of her grief at her separation from her husband and from the Sultan, her father, and the horror of what had befallen her from the accursed Moorish wizard, was wont to arise every day at the streak of dawn, and to sit weeping; for she slept not at all of nights, and avoided food and drink. And her handmaiden would come to her at prayer-time to dress her, and as fate had decreed, the girl had opened the window at that instant in order for her to look upon the trees and the streams and console herself. And the maid looked out of the window and discovered 'Ala-ed-Din, her master, sitting beneath the apartment, and she said to the Lady Bedr-el-Budur: "O my mistress, O my mistress! Here is my master 'Ala-ed-Din sitting under the window." So the Lady Bedr-el-Budur arose in haste and looked out of the window and saw him, and 'Ala-ed-Din turned his head and saw her, and she greeted him and he 'greeted her, and they were both like to fly with joy. And she said to him: "Arise and come in to me by the secret door, now that the accursed is away." And she bade the girl descend and open the secret door for him. And 'Ala-ed-Din arose and entered thereby, and his wife, the Lady Bedr-el Budur, met him at the door, and they embraced
