await the coming of Ali bin Bakkar's funeral. When it arrived, the people of Baghdad went forth to meet it and I went forth with them: and I saw the damsel among the women and she the loudest of them in lamentation, crying out and wailing with a voice that rent the vitals and made the heart ache. Never was seen in Baghdad a finer funeral than his; and we ceased not to follow in crowds till we reached the cemetery and buried him to the mercy of Almighty Allah; nor from that time to this have I ceased to visit the tombs of Ali son of Bakkar and of Shams al-Nahar. This, then, is their story, and Allah Almighty have mercy upon them!"[FN#219] And yet is not their tale (continued Shahrazad) more wonderful than that of King Shahriman. The King asked her "And what was his tale?"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Seventieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, as regards the
Tale of Kamar Al-Zaman
That there was in times of yore and in ages long gone before a King called Shahrimán,[FN#220] who was lord of many troops and guards, and officers, and who reigned over certain islands, known as the Khálidán Islands,[FN#221] on the borders of the land of the Persians. But he was