Among the many objects that attracted my attention was a black horse, of the most perfect symmetry and beauty that ever was beheld.  I approached in order the better to observe him, and found he had on a saddle and bridle of massive gold, curiously wrought.  One part of his manger was filled with clean barley and sesame, and the other with rose-water.  I laid hold of his bridle, and led him out to view him by daylight.  I mounted, and endeavoured to make him move:  but finding he did not stir, I struck him with a switch I had taken up in his magnificent stable.  He had no sooner felt the blow, than he began to neigh in a most horrible manner, and extending his wings, which I had not before perceived, flew up with me into the air.  My thoughts were fully in keeping my seat; and considering the fear that had seized me, I sat well.  At length he directed his course towards the earth, and lighted upon the terrace of a castle, and, without giving me time to dismount, shook me out of the saddle with such force, as to throw me behind him, and with the end of his tail he struck out my eye.

Thus it was I became blind of one eye.  I then recollected the predictions of the ten young gentlemen.  The horse again took wing, and soon disappeared.  I got up much vexed at the misfortune I had brought upon myself.  I walked upon the terrace, covering my eye with one of my hands, for it pained me exceedingly, and then descended, and entered into a hall.  I soon discoved by the ten sofas in a circle, and the eleventh in the middle, lower than the rest, that I was in the castle whence I had been carried by the roc.

The ten young gentlemen were not in the hall when I entered; but came in soon after, attended by the old man.  They seemed not at all surprised to see me, nor at the loss of my eye; but said, “We are sorry that we cannot congratulate you on your return, as we could wish; but we are not the cause of your misfortune.”  “I should do you wrong,” I replied, “to lay it to your charge; I have only myself to accuse.”  “If,” said they, “it be a subject of consolation to the afflicted to know that others share their sufferings, you have in us this alleviation of your misfortune.  All that has happened to you we have also endured; we each of us tasted the same pleasures during a year; and we had still continued to enjoy them, had we not opened the golden door, when the princesses were absent.  You have been no wiser than we, and have incurred the same punishment.  We would gladly receive you into our company, to join with us in the penance to which we are bound, and the duration of which we know not.  But we have already stated to you the reasons that render this impossible:  depart, therefore, and proceed to the court of Bagdad, where you will meet with the person who is to decide your destiny.”  After they had explained to me the road I was to travel, I departed.