sent Hasan to the mountain-top and made him throw down all he required
he presently reviled him and left him and wended his ways and the youth
exclaimed, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great! This damned hound hath played the traitor.” Then he
rose to his feet and looked right and left, after which he walked on
along the mountain top, in mind making certain of death. He fared on
thus till he came to the counterslope of the mountain, along which he
saw a dark-blue sea, dashing with billows clashing and yeasting waves
each as it were a lofty mount. So he sat down and repeated what he might
of the Koran and besought Allah the Most High to ease him of his
troubles, or by death or by deliverance from such strait. Then he
recited for himself the funeral-prayer[35] and cast himself down into
the main; but, the waves bore him up by Allah’s grace, so that he
reached the water unhurt, and the angel in whose charge is the sea
watched over him, so that the billows bore him safe to land, by the
decree of the Most High. Thereupon he rejoiced and praised Almighty
Allah and thanked Him; after which he walked on in quest of something to
eat, for stress of hunger, and came presently to the place where he had
halted with the Magian, Bahram. Then he fared on awhile, till behold, he
caught sight of a great palace, rising high in air, and knew it for that
of which he had questioned the Persian and he had replied, “Therein
dwelleth a foe of mine.” Hasan said to himself, “By Allah, needs must I
enter yonder palace; perchance relief awaiteth me there.” So coming to
it and finding the gate open, he entered the vestibule, where he saw
seated on a bench two girls like twin moons with a chess-cloth before
them and they were at play. One of them raised her head to him and cried
out for joy saying, “By Allah, here is a son of Adam, and methinks ’tis
he whom Bahram the Magian brought hither this year!” So Hasan hearing
her words cast himself at their feet and wept with sore weeping and
said, “Yes, O my ladies, by Allah, I am indeed that unhappy.” Then said
the younger damsel to her elder sister, “Bear witness against me,[36] O
my sister, that this is my brother by covenant of Allah and that I will
die for his death and live for his life and joy for his joy and mourn
for his mourning.” So saying, she rose and embraced him and kissed him
and presently taking him by the hand and her sister with her, led him
into the palace, where she did off his ragged clothes and brought him a
suit of Kings’ raiment wherewith she arrayed him. Moreover, she made
ready all manner viands[37] and set them before him, and sat and ate
with him, she and her sister. Then said they to him, “Tell us thy tale
with yonder dog, the wicked, the wizard, from the time of thy falling
into his hands to that of thy freeing thee from him; and after we will
tell thee all that hath passed between us and him, so thou mayst be on
thy guard against him an thou see him again.” Hearing these words and
finding himself thus kindly received, Hasan took heart of grace and
reason returned to him and he related to them all that had befallen him
with the Magian from first to last. Then they asked, “Didst thou ask him
of this palace?”; and he answered, “Yes, but he said:—Name it not to me;
for it belongeth to Ghuls and Satans.” At this, the two damsels waxed
wroth with exceeding wrath and said, “Did that Miscreant style us Ghuls
and Satans?” And Hasan answered, “Yes.” Cried the younger sister, “By
Allah, I will assuredly do him die with the foulest death and make him
to lack the wind of the world!” Quoth Hasan, “And how wilt thou get at
him, to kill him, for he is a crafty magician?”; and quoth she, “He is
in a garden by name Al-Mushayyad,[38] and there is no help but that I
slay him before long.” Then said her sister, “Sooth spake Hasan in
everything he hath recounted to us of this cur; but now tell him our
tale, that all of it may abide in his memory.” So the younger said to
him, “Know, O my brother, that we are the daughters of a King of the
mightiest Kings of the Jann, having Marids for troops and guards and
servants, and Almighty Allah blessed him with seven daughters by one
wife; but of his folly such jealousy and stiff-neckedness and pride
beyond compare gat hold upon him that he would not give us in marriage
to any one and, summoning his Wazirs and Emirs, he said to them:—Can ye
tell me of any place untrodden by the tread of men and Jinn and
abounding in trees and fruits and rills? And quoth they, What wilt thou
therewith, O King of the Age? And quoth he, I desire there to lodge my
seven daughters. Answered they, O King, the place for them is the Castle
of the Mountain of Clouds, built by an Ifrit of the rebellious Jinn, who
revolted from the covenant of our lord Solomon, on whom be the Peace!
Since his destruction, none hath dwelt there, nor man nor Jinni, for
’tis cut off[39] and none may win to it. And the Castle is girt about
with trees and fruits and rills, and the water running around it is
sweeter than honey and colder than snow: none who is afflicted with
leprosy or elephantiasis[40] or what not else drinketh thereof but he is
healed forthright. Hearing this our father sent us hither, with an
escort of his troops and guards and provided us with all that we need
here. When he is minded to ride to us he beateth a kettle-drum,
whereupon all his hosts present themselves before him and he chooseth
whom he shall ride and dismisseth the rest; but, when he desireth that
we shall visit him, he commandeth his followers, the enchanters, to
fetch us and carry us to the presence; so he may solace himself with our
society and we accomplish our desire of him; after which they again
carry us back hither. Our five other sisters are gone a-hunting in our
desert, wherein are wild beasts past compt or calculation and, it being
our turn to do this we two abode at home, to make ready for them food.
Indeed, we had besought Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) to vouchsafe
us a son of Adam to cheer us with his company and praised be He who hath
brought thee to us! So be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and
clear, for no harm shall befal thee.” Hasan rejoiced and said,
“Alhamdolillah, laud to the Lord who guideth us into the path of
deliverance and inclineth hearts to us!” Then his sister[41] rose and
taking him by the hand, led him into a private chamber, where she
brought out to him linen and furniture that no mortal can avail unto.
Presently, the other damsels returned from hunting and birding and their
sisters acquainted them with Hasan’s case; whereupon they rejoiced in
him and going into him in his chamber, saluted him with the salam and
gave him joy of his safety. Then he abode with them in all the solace of
life and its joyance, riding out with them to the chase and taking his
pleasure with them whilst they entreated him courteously and cheered him
with converse, till his sadness ceased from him and he recovered health
and strength and his body waxed stout and fat, by dint of fair treatment
and pleasant time among the seven moons in that fair palace with its
gardens and flowers; for indeed he led the delightsomest of lives with
the damsels who delighted in him and he yet more in them. And they used
to give him drink of the honey-dew of their lips,[42] these beauties
with the high bosoms, adorned with grace and loveliness, the perfection
of brilliancy and in shape very symmetry. Moreover the youngest Princess
told her sisters how Bahram the Magian had made them of the Ghuls and
Demons and Satans,[43] and they sware that they would surely slay him.
Next year the accursed Guebre again made his appearance, having with him
a handsome young Moslem, as he were the moon, bound hand and foot and
tormented with grievous tortures, and alighted with him below the
palace-walls. Now Hasan was sitting under the trees by the side of the
stream; and when he espied Bahram, his heart fluttered,[44] his hue
changed and he smote hand upon hand.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Hasan the
goldsmith saw the Magian, his heart fluttered, his hue changed and he
smote hand upon hand. Then he said to the Princesses, “O my sisters,
help me to the slaughter of this accursed, for here he is come back and
in your grasp, and he leadeth with him captive a young Moslem of the
sons of the notables, whom he is torturing with all manner grievous
torments. Lief would I kill him and console my heart of him; and, by
delivering the young Moslem from his mischief and restoring him to his
country and kith and kin and friends, fain would I lay up merit for the
world to come, by taking my wreak of him.[45] This will be an almsdeed
from you and ye will reap the reward thereof from Almighty Allah.” “We
hear and we obey Allah and thee, O our brother, O Hasan,” replied they
and binding chin-veils, armed themselves and slung on their swords:
after which they brought Hasan a steed of the best and equipped him in
panoply and weaponed him with goodly weapons. Then they all sallied out
and found the Magian who had slaughtered and skinned a camel ill-using
the young Moslem, and saying to him, “Sit thee in this hide.” So Hasan
came behind him, without his knowledge, and cried out at him till he was
dazed and amazed. Then he came up to him, saying, “Hold thy hand, O
accursed! O enemy of Allah and foe of the Moslems! O dog! O traitor! O
thou that flame dost obey! O thou that walkest in the wicked ones’ ways,
worshipping the fire and the light and swearing by the shade and the
heat!” Herewith the Magian turned and seeing Hasan, thought to wheedle
him and said to him, “O my son, how diddest thou escape and who brought
thee down to earth?” Hasan replied, “He delivered me, who hath appointed
the taking of thy life to be at my hand, and I will torture thee even as
thou torturest me the whole way long. O miscreant, O atheist,[46] thou
hast fallen into the twist and the way thou hast missed; and neither
mother shall avail thee nor brother, nor friend nor solemn covenant
shall assist thee; for thou saidst, O accursed, Whoso betrayeth bread
and salt, may Allah do vengeance upon him! And thou hast broken the bond
of bread and salt; wherefore the Almighty hath thrown thee into my
grasp, and far is thy chance of escape from me.” Rejoined Bahram, “By
Allah, O my son, O Hasan, thou art dearer to me than my sprite and the
light of mine eyes!” But Hasan stepped up to him and hastily smote him
between the shoulders, that the sword issued gleaming from his
throat-tendons and Allah hurried his soul to the fire, and abiding-place
dire. Then Hasan took the Magian’s bag and opened it, then having taken
out the kettle-drum he struck it with the strap, whereupon up came the
dromedaries like lightning. So he unbound the youth from his bonds and
setting him on one of the camels, loaded him another with victual and
water,[47] saying, “Wend whither thou wilt.” So he departed, after
Almighty Allah had thus delivered him from his strait at the hands of
Hasan. When the damsels saw their brother slay the Magian they joyed in
him with exceeding joy and gat round him, marvelling at his valour and
prowess;[48] and thanked him for his deed and gave him joy of his
safety, saying, “O Hasan thou hast done a deed, whereby thou hast healed
the burning of him that thirsteth for vengeance and pleased the King of
Omnipotence!” Then they returned to the palace, and he abode with them,
eating and drinking and laughing and making merry; and indeed his
sojourn with them was joyous to him and he forgot his mother;[49] but
while he led with them this goodly life one day, behold, there arose
from the further side of the desert a great cloud of dust that darkened
the welkin and made towards them. When the Princesses saw this, they
said to him, “Rise, O Hasan, run to thy chamber and conceal thyself; or
an thou wilt, go down into the garden and hide thyself among the trees
and vines; but fear not, for no harm shall befal thee.” So he arose and
entering his chamber, locked the door upon himself, and lay lurking in
the palace. Presently the dust opened out and showed beneath it a great
and conquering host, as it were a surging sea, coming from the King, the
father of the damsels. Now when the troops reached the castle, the
Princesses received them with all honour and hospitably entertained them
three days; after which they questioned them of their case and tidings
and they replied saying, “We come from the King in quest of you.” They
asked, “And what would the King with us?”; and the officers answered,
“One of the Kings maketh a marriage festival, and your father would have
you be present thereat and take your pleasure therewith.” The damsels
enquired, “And how long shall we be absent from our place?”; and they
rejoined, “The time to come and go, and to sojourn may be two months.”
So the Princesses arose and going in to the palace sought Hasan,
acquainted him with the case and said to him, “Verily this place is thy
place and our house is thy house; so be of good cheer and keep thine
eyes cool and clear and feel nor grief nor fear, for none can come at
thee here; but keep a good heart and a glad mind, till we return to
thee. The keys of our chambers we leave with thee; but, O our brother,
we beseech thee, by the bond of brotherhood, in very deed not to open
such a door, for thou hast no need thereto.” Then they farewelled him
and fared forth with the troops, leaving Hasan alone in the palace. It
was not long before his breast grew straitened and his patience
shortened: solitude and sadness were heavy on him and he sorrowed for
his severance from them with passing chagrin. The palace for all its
vastness, waxed small to him and finding himself sad and solitary, he
bethought him of the damsels and their pleasant converse and recited
these couplets:—
The wide plain is narrowed before these eyes ✿ And the landscape
troubles this heart of mine.
Since my friends went forth, by the loss of them ✿ Joy fled and these
eyelids rail floods of brine:
Sleep shunned these eyeballs for parting woe ✿ And my mind is worn with
sore pain and pine:
Would I wot an Time shall rejoin our lots ✿ And the joys of love with
night-talk combine.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after the
departure of the damsels, Hasan sat in the palace sad and solitary and
his breast was straitened by severance. He used to ride forth a-hunting
by himself in the wold and bring back the game and slaughter it and eat
thereof alone: but melancholy and disquiet redoubled on him, by reason
of his loneliness. So he arose and went round about the palace and
explored its every part; he opened the Princesses’ apartments and found
therein riches and treasures fit to ravish the beholder’s reason; but he
delighted not in aught thereof, by reason of their absence. His heart
was fired by thinking of the door they had charged him not to approach
or open on any account and he said in himself, “My sister had never
enjoined me not to open this door, except there were behind it somewhat
whereof she would have none to know; but, by Allah, I will arise and
open it and see what is within, though within it were sudden death!”
Then he took the key and, opening the door,[50] saw therein no treasure
but he espied a vaulted and winding staircase of Yamani onyx at the
upper end of the chamber. So he mounted the stair, which brought him out
upon the terrace-roof of the palace, whence he looked down upon the
gardens and vergiers, full of trees and fruits and beasts and birds
warbling praises of Allah, the One, the All-powerful; and said in
himself “This is that they forbade to me.” He gazed upon these
pleasaunces and saw beyond a surging sea, dashing with clashing billows,
and he ceased not to explore the palace right and left, till he ended at
a pavilion builded with alternate courses, two bricks of gold and one of
silver and jacinth and emerald and supported by four columns. And in the
centre he saw a sitting-room paved and lined with a mosaic of all manner
precious stones such as rubies and emeralds and balasses and other
jewels of sorts; and in its midst stood a basin[51] brimful of water,
over which was a trellis-work of sandal-wood and aloes-wood reticulated
with rods of red gold and wands of emerald and set with various kinds of
jewels and fine pearls, each sized as a pigeon’s egg. The trellis was
covered with a climbing vine, bearing grapes like rubies, and beside the
basin stood a throne of lign-aloes latticed with red gold, inlaid with
great pearls and comprising vari-coloured gems of every sort and
precious minerals, each kind fronting each and symmetrically disposed.
About it the birds warbled with sweet tongues and various voices
celebrating the praises of Allah the Most High: brief, it was a palace
such as nor Cæsar nor Chosroës ever owned; but Hasan saw therein none of
the creatures of Allah, whereat he marvelled and said in himself, “I
wonder to which of the Kings this place pertaineth, or is it
Many-Columned Iram whereof they tell, for who among mortals can avail to
the like of this?” And indeed he was amazed at the spectacle and sat
down in the pavilion and cast glances around him marvelling at the
beauty of its ordinance and at the lustre of the pearls and jewels and
the curious works which therein were, no less than at the gardens and
orchards aforesaid and at the birds that hymned the praises of Allah,
the One, the Almighty; and he abode pondering the traces of him whom the
Most High had enabled to rear that structure, for indeed He is muchel of
might.[52] And presently, behold, he espied ten birds[53] flying towards
the pavilion from the heart of the desert and knew that they were making
the palace and bound for the basin, to drink of its waters: so he hid
himself, for fear they should see him and take flight. They lighted on a
great tree and a goodly and circled round about it; and he saw amongst
them a bird of marvel-beauty, the goodliest of them all, and the nine
stood around it and did it service; and Hasan marvelled to see it peck
them with its bill and lord it over them while they fled from it. He
stood gazing at them from afar as they entered the pavilion and perched
on the couch; after which each bird rent open its neck-skin with its
claws and issued out of it; and lo! it was but a garment of feathers,
and there came forth therefrom ten virgins, maids whose beauty shamed
the brilliancy of the moon. They all doffed their clothes and plunging
into the basin, washed and fell to playing and sporting one with other;
whilst the chief bird of them lifted up the rest and ducked them down,
and they fled from her and dared not put forth their hands to her. When
Hasan beheld her thus he took leave of his right reason and his sense
was enslaved, so he knew that the Princesses had not forbidden him to
open the door save because of this; for he fell passionately in love
with her, for what he saw of her beauty and loveliness, symmetry and
perfect grace, as she played and sported and splashed the others with
the water. He stood looking upon them whilst they saw him not, with eye
gazing and heart burning and soul[54] to evil prompting; and he sighed
to be with them and wept for longing, because of the beauty and
loveliness of the chief damsel. His mind was amazed at her charms and
his heart taken in the net of her love; lowe was loosed in his heart for
her sake and there waxed on him a flame, whose sparks might not be
quenched, and desire, whose signs might not be hidden. Presently, they
came up out of that basin, whilst Hasan marvelled at their beauty and
loveliness and the tokens of inner gifts in the elegance of their
movements. Then he cast a glance at the chief damsel who stood
mother-naked and there was manifest to him what was between her thighs a
goodly rounded dome on pillars borne, like a bowl of silver or crystal,
which recalled to him the saying of the poet:[55]—
When I took up her shift and discovered the terrace-roof of her kaze, I
found it as strait as my humour or eke my worldly ways:
So I thrust it, incontinent, in, halfway, and she heaved a sigh. “For
what dost thou sigh?” quoth I. “For the rest of it sure,” she says.
Then coming out of the water they all put on their dresses and
ornaments, and the chief maiden donned a green dress,[56] wherein she
surpassed for loveliness all the fair ones of the world and the lustre
of her face outshone the resplendent full moons: she excelled the
branches with the grace of her bending gait and confounded the wit with
apprehension of disdain; and indeed she was as saith the poet:[57]—
A maiden ’twas, the dresser’s art had decked with cunning sleight;
The sun thou ’d’st say had robbed her cheek and shone with borrowed
light.
She came to us apparelled fair in under vest of green,
Like as the ripe pomegranate hides beneath its leafy screen;
And when we asked her what might be the name of what she wore,
She answered in a quaint reply that double meaning bore:
The desert’s heart we penetrate in such apparel dressed,
And _Pierce-heart_ therefore is the name by which we call the vest.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Hasan
saw the damsels issue forth the basin, the chief maiden robbed his
reason with her beauty and loveliness compelling him to recite the
couplets forequoted. And after dressing they sat talking and laughing,
whilst he stood gazing on them, drowned in the sea of his love, burning
in the flames of passion and wandering in the Wady of his melancholy
thought. And he said to himself, “By Allah, my sister forbade me not to
open the door, but for cause of these maidens and for fear lest I should
fall in love with one of them! How, O Hasan shalt thou woo and win them?
How bring down a bird flying in the vasty firmament? By Allah thou hast
cast thyself into a bottomless sea and snared thyself in a net whence
there is no escape! I shall die desolate and none shall wot of my
death.” And he continued to gaze on the charms of the chief damsel, who
was the lovliest creature Allah had made in her day, and indeed she
outdid in beauty all human beings. She had a mouth magical as Solomon’s
seal and hair blacker than the night of estrangement to the
love-despairing man; her brow was bright as the crescent moon of the
Feast of Ramazán[58] and her eyes were like eyes wherewith gazelles
scan; she had a polished nose straight as a cane and cheeks like
blood-red anemones of Nu’uman, lips like coralline and teeth like strung
pearls in carcanets of gold virgin to man, and a neck like an ingot of
silver, above a shape like a wand of Bán: her middle was full of folds,
a dimpled plain such as enforceth the distracted lover to magnify Allah
and extol His might and main, and her navel[59] an ounce of musk,
sweetest of savour could contain: she had thighs great and plump, like
marble columns twain or bolsters stuffed with down from ostrich ta’en,
and between them a somewhat, as it were a hummock great of span or a
hare with ears back lain while terrace-roof and pilasters completed the
plan; and indeed she surpassed the bough of the myrobalan with her
beauty and symmetry, and the Indian rattan, for she was even as saith of
them the poet whom love did unman:[60]—
Her lip-dews rival honey-sweets, that sweet virginity; ✿ Keener than
Hindí scymitar the glance she casts at thee:
She shames the bending bough of Bán with graceful movement slow ✿ And as
she smiles her teeth appear with leven’s brilliancy:
When I compared with rose a-bloom the tintage of her cheeks, ✿ She
laughed in scorn and cried, “Whoso compares with rosery
My hue and breasts granados terms, is there no shame in him? ✿ How
should pomegranates bear on bough such fruit in form or blee?
Now by my beauty and mine eyes and heart and eke by Heaven ✿ Of favours
mine and by the Hell of my un-clemency,
They say ‘She is a garden-rose in very pride of bloom’; ✿ And yet no
rose can ape my cheek nor branch my symmetry!
If any garden own a thing which unto me is like, ✿ What then is that he
comes to crave of me and only me?”
They ceased not to laugh and play, whilst Hasan stood still a-watching
them, forgetting meat and drink, till near the hour of mid-afternoon
prayer, when the beauty, the chief damsel, said to her mates, “O Kings’
daughters, it waxeth late and our land is afar and we are weary of this
stead. Come, therefore, let us depart to our own place.” So they all
arose and donned their feather vests, and becoming birds as they were
before, flew away all together, with the chief lady in their midst.
Then, Hasan, despairing of their return, would have arisen and gone down
into the palace but could not move or even stand; wherefore the tears
ran down his cheeks and passion was sore on him and he recited these
couplets:—
May God deny me boon of troth if I ✿ After your absence sweets of
slumber know:
Yea; since that sev’rance never close mine eyes, ✿ Nor rest repose me
since departed you!
’Twould seem as though you saw me in your sleep; ✿ Would Heaven the
dreams of sleep were real-true!
Indeed I dote on sleep though needed not, ✿ For sleep may bring me that
dear form to view.