wedding feast of one of the King's Jinns. And they asked, "How long shall we be absent from this place?" And the answer was, "The time to come and to go and to stay will be two months." So the Princesses went to Hasan and said to him: "We must be away for two months, but, in the meanwhile, this house is thy house, all the keys of it we leave with thee. But, O our brother, by the bond of brotherhood we beseech thee in very deed, open not the eighth door." So they bade him farewell and fared forth with the troops, leaving Hasan alone in the palace.
And Hasan sorrowed at their departure, nor took he any pleasure in the hunt, in his food, or in the gorgeous riches and treasures of the palace, by reason of the Princesses' absence. Then his heart was fired by thinking of the door they had forbidden him to open, and he said within himself: "My sister had never told me not to open this door unless there were behind it something about which she would have none know. But I will open it and find out what it is, even though within were sudden death." So he opened the door, but saw no treasure therein, only a vaulted, winding staircase of Yamani onyx at the upper end. This stair he mounted, which brought him out upon the terrace-roof of the palace, below which were gardens and orchards full of trees and fruits, beasts, and birds singing the praises of Allah. And he said to himself, "This is what they forbade me." And beyond all these delights he beheld a surging, billowy sea. He continued to
