dearest, but I know not what may befall thee, so I beseech thee leave me not, but return to the palace." But she feared for her children and replied, "O King, my sister hath made ready for me an entertainment and awaiteth my coming; for these four years she hath not seen me, if I go not she will be angry. Besides, no stranger can gain access to the Islands of Wak, for he would be drowned in the seas of destruction." So she ceased not to persuade him till he gave her leave to depart, at the same time bidding her not remain longer than two days.
And when she arrived at her sister's palace the children ran to her weeping and crying, "O our father!" And she kissed them and put her arms about them, saying, "What! Have you seen your sire at this time? Would the hour had never been in which I left him. If I knew him to be in the house of the world I would carry you to him." And when her sister saw this she saluted her not, but said, "Whence hadst thou these children? Hast thou married unbeknown to thy sire? Or are they not legally thy children?" Then she bade her guards seize her, and pinion her elbows and shackle her with shackles of iron. And she beat her unmercifully and hanged her up by the hair, after which she cast her in prison and wrote the King, her father, acquainting him with the whole of her case. Then she delivered the letter to a courier and he carried it to the King, who, when he read it, was exceedingly angry with his daughter Manar and wrote to Nur al-Huda, saying, "I commit her case
