Then said Amjad to the treasurer, “I conjure thee by the One, Omnipotent, the Lord of Mercy, the Beneficent! slay me before my brother As’ad, so haply shall the fire be quencht in my heart’s core and in this life burn no more.”  But As’ad wept and exclaimed, “Not so:  I will die first;” whereupon quoth Amjad, “It were best that I embrace thee and thou embrace me, so the sword may fall upon us and slay us both at a single stroke.”  Thereupon they embraced, face to face and clung to each other straitly, whilst the treasurer tied up the twain and bound them fast with cords, weeping the while.  Then he drew his blade and said to them, “By Allah, O my lords, it is indeed hard to me to slay you!  But have ye no last wishes that I may fulfil or charges which I may carry out, or message which I may deliver?” Replied Amjad, “We have no wish; and my only charge to thee is that thou set my brother below and me above him, that the blow may fall on me first, and when thou hast killed us and returnest to the King and he asketh thee, ’What heardest thou from them before their death?’; do thou answer, ’Verily thy sons salute thee and say to thee, Thou knewest not if we were innocent or guilty, yet hast thou put us to death and hast not certified thyself of our sin nor looked into our case.’  Then do thou repeat to him these two couplets,

‘Women are Satans made for woe o’ men; *
     I fly to Allah from their devilish scathe: 
Source of whatever bale befel our kind, *
     In wordly matters and in things of Faith.’”

Continued Amjad, “We desire of thee naught but that thou repeat to our sire these two couplets.”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

    When it was ad the Two Hundred and Twenty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Amjad added, speaking to the treasurer, “We desire of thee naught but that thou repeat to our sire these two couplets which thou hast just now heard; and I conjure thee by Allah to have patience with us, whilst I cite to my brother this other pair of couplets.”  Then he wept with sore weeping and began,

“The Kings who fared before us showed *
     Of instances full many a show: 
Of great and small and high and low *
     How many this one road have trod!”

Now when the treasurer heard these words from Amjad, he wept till his beard was wet, whilst As’ad’s eyes brimmed with tears and he in turn repeated these couplets,

“Fate frights us when the thing is past and gone; *
     Weeping is not for form or face alone[FN#366]: 
What ails the Nights?[FN#367] Allah blot out our sin, *
     And be the Nights by other hand undone! 
Ere this Zubayr-son[FN#368] felt their spiteful hate, *
     Who fled for refuge to the House and Stone: 
Would that when Kharijah was for Amru slain[FN#369] *
     They had ransomed Ali with all men they own.”