She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that she gave her missive to the eunuch in waiting and bade him bear it to Prince Amjad.  And that eunuch went forth ignoring what the future hid for him (for the Omniscient ordereth events even as He willeth); and, going in to the Prince, kissed the ground between his hands and handed to him the letter.  On receiving the kerchief he opened it and, reading the epistle and recognizing its gist he was ware that his father’s wife was essentially an adulteress and a traitress at heart to her husband, King Kamar al-Zaman.  So he waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and railed at women and their works, saying, “Allah curse women, the traitresses, the imperfect in reason and religion!"[FN#359] Then he drew his sword and said to the eunuch, “Out on thee, thou wicked slave!  Dost thou carry messages of disloyalty for thy lord’s wife?  By Allah, there is no good in thee, O black of hue and heart, O foul of face and Nature’s forming!” So he smote him on the neck and severed his head from his body; then, folding the kerchief over its contents he thrust it into his breast pocket and went in to his own mother and told her what had passed, reviling and reproaching her, and saying, “Each one of you is viler than the other; and, by Allah the Great and Glorious, did I not fear ill-manneredly to transgress against the rights of my father, Kamar al-Zaman, and my brother, Prince As’ad, I would assuredly go in to her and cut off her head, even as I cut off that of her eunuch!” Then he went forth from his mother in a mighty rage; and when the news reached Queen Hayat al-Nufus of what he had done with her eunuch, she abused him[FN#360] and cursed him and plotted perfidy against him.  He passed the night, sick with rage, wrath and concern; nor found he pleasure in meat, drink or sleep.  And when the next morning dawned Prince As’ad fared forth in his turn to rule the folk in his father’s stead, whilst his mother, Hayat al-Nufus, awoke in feeble plight because of what she had heard from Prince Amjad concerning the slaughter of her eunuch.  So Prince As’ad sat in the audience-chamber that day, judging and administering justice, appointing and deposing, bidding and forbidding, giving and bestowing.  And he ceased not thus till near the time of afternoon-prayer, when Queen Budur sent for a crafty old woman and, discovering to her what was in her heart, wrote a letter to Prince As’ad, complaining of the excess of her affection and desire for him in these cadenced lines, “From her who perisheth for passion and love-forlorn * to him who in nature and culture is goodliest born * to him who is conceited of his own loveliness * and glories in his amorous grace * who from those that seek to enjoy him averteth his face * and refuseth to show favour unto the self abasing and base * him who is cruel and of disdainful mood * from the lover despairing of good * to Prince As’ad *
     with passing beauty endowed * and of excelling grace proud *