As soon as the prince of Persia beheld Schemselnihar, nothing else could attract his notice:  We cease inquiring after what we seek, said he to Ebn Thaher, when we see it; and there is no doubt remaining when once the truth makes itself manifest.  Do you see this charming beauty?  She is the cause of all my sufferings, which I hug, and will never forbear blessing them, however lasting they may be!  At the sight of this object, I am not my own master; my soul rebels, and disturbs me; and I fancy it has a mind to leave me!  Go then, my soul, I allow thee; but let it be for the welfare and preservation of this weak body!  It is you, cruel Ebn Thaher, who are the cause of this disorder!  You thought to do me great pleasure in bringing me hither, and I perceive I am only come to complete my ruin!  Pardon me, said he, interrupting himself; I am mistaken:  I was willing to come, and can blame nobody but myself.  At these words, he could not refrain from tears.  I am very well pleased, said Ebn Thaher, that you do me justice; when at first I told you that Schemselnihar was the caliph’s chief favourite, I did it on purpose to prevent that fatal passion which you please yourself with entertaining in your breast.  All that you see here ought to disengage you, and you are to think of nothing but of acknowledgments for the honour which Schemselnihar was willing to do you, by ordering me to bring you with me.  Call in, then, your wandering reason, and put yourself in a condition to appear before her, as good-breeding requires.  Behold, there she comes!  Were the matter to begin again, I would take other measures; but, since the thing is done, I wish we may not repent of it.  What I have further to say to you is this, that love is a traitor, who may throw you into a pit from which you will never be able to escape.

Ebn Thaher had not time to say more, because Schemselnihar came, and, sitting down upon her throne, saluted them both with an inclination of the head; but she fixed her eyes on the prince of Persia, and they spoke to one another in a silent language, intermixed with sighs; by which, in a few moments, they spoke more than could have been done by words in a great deal of time.  The more Schemselnihar looked upon the prince, the more she found from his looks that he was in love with her; and, being thus persuaded of his passion, thought herself the happiest woman in the world.  At last, turning her eyes from him to command the women who began to sing first to come near; they got up, and whilst they advanced, the black women, who came out of the walk into which they retired, brought their seats, and set them near the window, in the jet of the dome, where Ebn Thaher and the prince of Persia stood; and then they so disposed them on each side of the favourite’s throne, that they formed a semicircle.