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they had charged him not to approach or open, and he said in himself, ‘My sister had not forbidden me to open this door, except there were behind it somewhat, whereof she would have none to know; but, by Allah, I will arise and open it and see what is within, were death behind it!’
Then he took the key and opening the door, saw nothing therein but a winding stair of Yemen onyx at the upper end of the chamber. So he mounted the stair, which brought him out upon the terraced roof of the palace, whence he looked down upon gardens and orchards, full of trees and fruits and beasts and birds warbling the praises of God the One, the All-powerful, and said in himself, ‘This is that wherefrom they forbade me.’ Beyond these pleasaunces he saw a surging sea, swollen with clashing billows, and he ceased not to explore the [terraces of the] palace right and left, till he came to a pavilion such as neither Cæsar nor Chosroës ever possessed, builded with alternate courses of gold and silver and jacinth and emerald and supported by four columns.
The interior was paved and lined with a mosaic of jacinths and emeralds and balass-rubies and all manner other jewels, and in its midst was a basin of water, over which was a trellis of sandal and aloes-wood, netted with red gold and wands of emerald and set with various kinds of jewels and fine pearls, each the bigness of a pigeon’s egg. The trellis was covered with a climbing vine, bearing grapes like rubies, and beside the pool stood a couch of aloes-wood, trellised with red gold and inlaid with great pearls and all manner vari-coloured gems and precious stones, symmetrically disposed. About it the birds warbled, celebrating the praises of God the Most High with sweet and various voices; but, save them, Hassan saw therein none of the creatures of God, whereat he marvelled and said in himself, ‘I wonder to which of
