the dame replied, "O Queen of the Age and the Time, I have a favor to crave of thee and I fain would discover it to thee, that thou mayest help me to accomplish it, and but for my confidence that thou wilt not gainsay me, therein I would not expose it to thee." And the Queen asked: "What is thy need? Expound it to me and I will accomplish it to thee, for I and my kingdom and troops are all at thy command." Thereupon the old woman fell down before her, and acquainted her with the whole of Hasan's case. And the Queen was exceeding wroth, and said to Shawahi, "O ill-omened beldam, art thou come to such a pass that thou carriest men with thee into the Islands of Wak? But for thy claim on me I would make both him and thee die the foulest of deaths. Go and bring him hither that I may see him." So the old woman went to Hasan and said: "Rise, speak with the Queen, O wight, whose last hour is at hand." And when he came in the Queen's presence, he kissed ground before her, and saluted her with the salaam. And the Queen bade the old woman ask him questions that she might hear his answers. Thus she heard from his own lips the story of what had befallen him. And when he quoted the parting words of his wife, in which she intimated that if he longed for her he should come to the Islands of Wak for her, the Queen shook her head and said: "She would not have spoken thus, if she had not desired thee, nor acquainted thee with her abiding place." And Hasan said: "O mistress of Kings and asylum of prince and pauper,
