"When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines he became as one distraught and he cried out, 'Only in utter solitude can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life is naught but one great wrong'" (12).

"He also sware himself by a binding oath that whatever wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at night and slay her next morning to make sure of his honour; 'For' said he, 'there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of the earth'" (16).

"On this wise he continued for the space of three years; marrying a maiden every night and killing her the next morning, till folk raised an outcry against him and cursed him, praying Allah utterly to destroy him and his rule; and women made an uproar and mothers wept and parents fled with their daughters...