“Be it as thou deemest,” answered Er Reshid and caused return the damsel to her chamber, saying to her, “The Lady Zubeideh saith thus and thus.”  Quoth she, “God requite her for me with good!  Indeed, thou dealest equitably, O Commander of the Faithful, in this judgment.”  And he answered, “Go now to thy place, and to-morrow we will let bring thy lord.”  So she kissed the earth and recited the following verses: 

I am content, for him I love, to all abide; So, who will, let him
     blame, and who will, let him chide. 
At their appointed terms souls die; but for despair My soul is
     like to die, or ere its term betide. 
O thou with love of whom I’m smitten, yet content, I prithee come
     to me and hasten to my side.

Then she arose and returned to her chamber.

On the morrow, the Commander of the Faithful sat [in his hall of audience] and his Vizier Jaafer ben Yehya the Barmecide came in to him; whereupon he called to him, saying, “I would have thee bring me a youth who is lately come to Baghdad, hight [Sidi Noureddin Ali] the Damascene.”  Quoth Jaafer, “Hearkening and obedience,” and going forth in quest of the youth, sent to the markets and khans and caravanserais three days’ space, but found no trace of him, neither lit upon tidings of him.  So on the fourth day he presented himself before the Khalif and said to him, “O our lord, I have sought him these three days, but have not found him.”  Quoth Er Reshid, “Make ready letters to Damascus.  Belike he hath returned to his own land.”  So Jaafer wrote a letter and despatched it by a dromedary-courier to the city of Damascus; and they sought him there and found him not.

Meanwhile, news was brought that Khorassan had been conquered;[FN#23] whereupon Er Reshid rejoiced and bade decorate Baghdad and release all who were in the prisons, giving each of them a dinar and a dress.  So Jaafer addressed himself to the decoration of the city and bade his brother El Fezl ride to the prison and clothe and release the prisoners.  El Fezl did his brother’s bidding and released all but the young Damascene, who abode still in the Prison of Blood, saying, “There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Sublime!  Verily, we are God’s and to Him we return.”  Then said El Fezl to the gaoler, “Is there any prisoner left in the prison?” “No,” answered he, and El Fezl was about to depart, when Noureddin called out to him from within the prison, saying, “O my lord, tarry, for there remaineth none in the prison other than I and indeed I am oppressed.  This is a day of clemency and there is no disputing concerning it.”  El Fezl bade release him; so they set him free and he gave him a dress and a dinar.  So the young man went out, bewildered and knowing not whither he should go, for that he had abidden in the prison nigh a year and indeed his condition was changed and his favour faded, and he abode walking and turning round, lest El Muradi should come upon him and cast him into another calamity.