This was sufficient to oblige Queen Gulnare to yield.  She took leave of the queen her mother, and returned to the palace of the capital of Persia before she had been missed.  She immediately despatched persons to recall the officers she had sent after the king, to tell them that she knew where his majesty was, and that they should soon see him again.  She also caused the same report to be spread throughout the city, and governed, in concert with the prime minister and council, with the same tranquillity as if the king had been present.

To return to King Beder, whom the Princess Jehaun-ara’s waiting-woman had left in the island before mentioned; that monarch was not a little surprised when he found himself alone, and under the form of a bird.  He esteemed himself yet more unhappy, in that he knew not where he was, or in what part of the world the kingdom of Persia lay.  But if he had known, and had tried the force of his wings, to hazard the traversing so many extensive watery regions, and had reached it, what could he have gained, but the mortification to continue still in the same form, and not to be accounted even a man, much less acknowledged king of Persia?  He was forced to remain where he was, live upon such food as birds of his kind were wont to have, and to pass the night on a tree.

A few days afterwards, a peasant, skilled in taking birds with nets, chanced to come to the place where he was; when perceiving so fine a bird, the like of which he had never seen, though he had followed that employment for a long while, he began greatly to rejoice.  He employed all his art to ensnare him; and at length succeeded and took him.  Overjoyed at so great a prize, which he looked upon to be of more worth than all the other birds he commonly took, he shut it up in a cage, and carried it to the city.  As soon as he was come into the market, a citizen stops him, and asked how much he would have for his bird?

Instead of answering, the peasant demanded of the citizen what he would do with him in case he should buy him?  “What wouldst thou have me to do with him,” answered the citizen, “but roast and eat him?” “If that be the case,” replied the peasant, “I suppose you would think me very well paid, if you should give me the smallest piece of silver for him.  I set a much higher value upon him, and you should not have him for a piece of gold.  Although I am advanced in years, I never saw such a bird in my life.  I intend to make a present of him to the king; he will know its value better than you.”

Without staying any longer in the market, the peasant went directly to the palace, and placed himself exactly before the king’s apartment.  His majesty, being at a window where he could see all that passed in the court, no sooner cast his eyes on this beautiful bird, than he sent an officer of his eunuchs to buy it for him.  The officer going to the peasant, demanded of him how much he would have for the bird?