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forthright and went to meet the Sultan, who[1] said to him, when he saw him, “Wherefore, O my son, hast thou done thus, and why sufferedst thou not the jewellers complete the lattice-work of the oriel,[2] so there might not remain a place in thy palace[3] defective?” “O King of the Age,” answered Alaeddin, “I left it not imperfect but of my free will, nor did I lack of ableness to complete it. However, I could not brook that Thy Grace should honour me [with thy presence] in a palace[4] wherein there was somewhat lacking; wherefore, so thou mayst know that it was not for lack of ableness that I left it uncomplete,[5] let Thy Grace go up and see the lattice-work of the kiosk,[6] an there be aught lacking thereto.”
The Sultan accordingly went up to the pavilion[7] and entering the kiosk,[8] viewed it right and left and
- ↑ Night DLXXII.
- ↑ Lit. “kiosk” (kushk).
- ↑ Fi szerayyetika.
- ↑ Szeraya.
- ↑ Lit. “that I was not lacking in ableness to complete it.”
- ↑ Kushk, here used in sense of “belvedere.”
- ↑ Or “upper chamber” (keszr).
- ↑ Kushk. From this passage it would seem as if the belvedere actually projected from the side of the upper story or soler (keszr), instead of being built on the roof, lantern-wise, or being (as would appear from earlier passages) identical with the hall itself; but the whole description is as before remarked. so full of incoherence and confusion of terms that it is impossible to reconcile its inconsistencies.
