At daybreak, my friend returned and opening the door, came in, bringing with him meat-pottage[FN#177] and fritters and bees’ honey,[FN#178] and said to me, ’By Allah, thou must needs excuse me, for that I was with a company and they locked the door on me and have but now let me go.’  But I returned him no answer.  Then he set before me that which was with him and I ate a single mouthful and went out, running, so haply I might overtake that which had escaped me.[FN#179] When I came to the palace, I saw over against it eight-and-thirty gibbets set up, whereon were eight-and-thirty men crucified, and under them eight-and-thirty concubines as they were moons.  So I enquired of the reason of the crucifixion of the men and concerning the women in question, and it was said unto me, ’The men [whom thou seest] crucified the Khalif found with yonder damsels, who are his favourites.’  When I heard this, I prostrated myself in thanksgiving to God and said, ‘God requite thee with good, O my friend!’ For that, had he not invited me [and kept me perforce in his house] that night, I had been crucified with these men, wherefore praise be to God!

Thus,” continued Shehrzad, “none is safe from the calamities of fortune and the vicissitudes of time, and [in proof of this], I will relate unto thee yet another story still rarer and more extraordinary than this.  Know, O King, that one said to me, ’A friend of mine, a merchant, told me the following story.  Quoth he,

The merchant of Cairo and the favourite
of the Khalif el Mamoun el Hakim bi
Amrillah.[FN#180]

As I sat one day in my shop, there came up to me a fair woman, as she were the moon at its rising, and with her a slave-girl.  Now I was a handsome man in my time; so the lady sat down on [the bench before] my shop and buying stuffs of me, paid down the price and went away.  I questioned the girl of her and she said, “I know not her name.”  Quoth I, “Where is her abode?” “In heaven,” answered the slave-girl; and I said, “She is presently on the earth; so when doth she ascend to heaven and where is the ladder by which she goeth up?” Quoth the girl, “She hath her lodging in a palace between two rivers,[FN#181] to wit, the palace of El Mamoun el Hakim bi Amrillah."[FN#182] Then said I, “I am a dead man, without recourse; “but she replied, “Have patience, for needs must she return unto thee and buy stuffs of thee yet again.”  “And how cometh it,” asked I, “that the Commander of the Faithful trusteth her to go out?” “He loveth her with an exceeding love,” answered she, “and is wrapped up in her and gainsayeth her not.”