So saying, Abdallah put two cakes into king Beder’s hands, bidding him keep them to be used as he should direct.  “You told me,” continued he, “the sorceress made a cake last night; it was for you to eat; but do not touch it.  Nevertheless, do not refuse to receive it, when she offers it you; but instead of tasting it, break off part of one of the two I shall give you, unobserved, and eat that.  As soon as she thinks you have swallowed it, she will not fail to attempt transforming you into some animal, but she shall not succeed; when she sees that she has failed, she will immediately turn her proceeding into pleasantry, as if what she had done was only out of joke to frighten you; but she will conceal a mortal grief in her heart, and think she has omitted something in the composition of her cake.  As for the other cake, you shall make a present of it to her, and press her to eat it; which she will not refuse to do, were it only to convince you she does not mistrust you, though she has given you so much reason to mistrust her.  When she has eaten of it, take a little water in the hollow of your hand, and throwing it in her face, say, “Quit that form you now wear, and take that of such or such animal,” as you shall think fit; which done, come to me with the animal, and I will tell you what you shall do afterwards.”

King Beder expressed to Abdallah, in the warmest terms, his great obligations to him, for his endeavours to defend him from the power of a pestilent sorceress; and after some further conversation took his leave of him, and returned to the palace.  Upon his arrival, he understood that the queen waited for him with great impatience in the garden.  He went to her, and she no sooner perceived him, than she came in great haste to meet him.  “My dear Beder!” exclaimed she, “it is said, with a great deal of reason, that nothing more forcibly shews the excess of love than absence from the object beloved.  I have had no quiet since I saw you, and it seems ages since I have been separated from you.  If you had stayed ever so little longer, I was preparing to come and fetch you once more to my arms.”

“Madam,” replied king Beder, “I can assure your majesty, I was no less impatient to rejoin you; but I could not refuse to stay with an uncle who loves me, and had not seen me for so long a time.  He would have kept me still longer, but I tore myself away from him, to come where love calls me.  Of all the collations he prepared for me, I have only brought away this cake, which I desire your majesty to accept.”  King Beder, having wrapped up one of the two cakes in a handkerchief, took it out, and presented it to the queen, saying, “I beg your majesty to accept of it.”

“I do accept it with all my heart,” replied the queen, receiving it, “and will eat it with pleasure for yours and your good uncle’s sake; but before I taste of it, I desire you will, for my sake, eat a piece of this, which I have made for you during your absence.”  “Fair queen,” answered king Beder, receiving it with great respect, “such hands as your majesty’s can never make anything but what is excellent, and I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the favour you do me.”