Bahram and Tarkash and the Grand Chamberlain; then waited till the whole party was seated before him; whereupon he turned to the Minister and said, "Know, O Wazir, that night is come and hath let down over us its veil of gloom, and we desire that thou tell us those tales which thou promisedst us." Replied the Wazir, "With joy and good will."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Zau Al-Makan summoned the Wazir and the Chamberlain and Rustam and Bahram, he turned towards the Minister Dandan and said, "Know, O Wazir, that night is come and hath let down over us its veil of gloom, and we desire that thou tell us those tales which thou promisedst us." Replied the Wazir, "With love and gladness! Know, O auspicious King, that there reached my ears a relation of a lover and a loved one and of the discourse between them and what befel them of things rare and fair, a story such as repelleth care from the heart and dispelleth sorrow like unto that of the patriarch Jacob[FN#459]; and it is as follows":
Tale of Taj Al-Muluk and the Princess Dunya
(The Lover and the Loved).
There stood in times long gone by behind the Mountains of Ispahán, a