When the messenger came to King Azadbekht and he read the letter and the present was laid before him, he rejoiced with an exceeding joy and occupied himself with eating and drinking, hour after hour.  But the chief Vizier of his Viziers came to him and said, “0 king, know that Isfehend the Vizier is thine enemy, for that his soul liketh not that which thou hast done with him, and the message that he hath sent thee [is a trick; so] rejoice thou not therein, neither be thou deluded by the sweetness of his words and the softness of his speech.”  The king hearkened [not] to his Vizier’s speech, but made light of the matter and presently, [dismissing it from his thought], busied himself with that which he was about of eating and drinking and merrymaking and delight

Meanwhile, Isfehend the Vizier wrote a letter and despatched it to all the Amirs, acquainting them with that which had betided him with King Azadbekht and how he had taken his daughter by force and adding, “And indeed he will do with you more than he hath done with me.”  When the letter reached the chiefs [of the people and troops], they all assembled together to Isfehend and said to him, “What is to do with him?"[FN#96] So he discovered to them the affair of his daughter and they all agreed, of one accord, that they should endeavour for the slaughter of the king and taking horse with their troops, set out, intending for him.  Azadbekht knew not [of their design] till the noise [of the invasion] beset his capital city, when he said to his wife Behrjaur, “How shall we do?” And she answered, saying, “Thou knowest best and I am at thy commandment.”  So he let bring two swift horses and bestrode one himself, whilst his wife mounted the other.  Then they took what they might of gold and went forth, fleeing, in the night, to the desert of Kerman; what while Isfehend entered the city and made himself king.

Now King Azadbekht’s wife was big with child and the pains of labour took her in the mountain; so they alighted at the mountain-foot, by a spring of water, and she gave birth to a boy as he were the moon.  Behrjaur his mother pulled off a gown of gold-inwoven brocade and wrapped the child therein, and they passed the night [in that place], what while she gave him suck till the morning.  Then said the king to her, “We are hampered by this child and cannot abide here nor can we carry him with us; so methinks we were better leave him here and go, for Allah is able to send him one who shall take him and rear him.”  So they wept over him exceeding sore and left him beside the spring, wrapped in the gown of brocade:  then they laid at his head a thousand dinars in a bag and mounting their horses, departed, fleeing.