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and brought the enchanter, disguised as Fatimeh, before the Lady Bedrulbudour; whereupon the Maugrabin offered up abundance of prayers for her, and none misdoubted of him but that he was Fatimeh the recluse. The princess rose and saluting him, seated him by her side and said to him, “O my Lady Fatimeh, I will have thee with me alway, that I may be blessed in thee and eke that I may learn of thee the ways of God-service and piety and model myself on thee.”
Now this was what the accursed sorcerer aimed at; however, the better to accomplish his perfidious intent,[1] he [dissembled and] said to her, “O my lady, I am a poor woman sitting in the desert and it beseemeth not that the like of me should abide in kings’ palaces.” Quoth the Lady Bedrulbudour, “Have no manner of care, O my lady Fatimeh; I will give thee a place in my house, where thou shalt do thy devotions, and none shall ever go in to thee; nay, here shalt thou serve God better than in thy cavern.” And the Maugrabin said to her, “Heark-
- ↑ Lit. “That he might complete his deceit the more.” The meaning is that he dissembled his satisfaction at the princess’s proposal and made a show of refusal, so he might hoodwink her the more effectually.
might be rendered, “Folk abound in setting a high value on (or extolling) her virtues.” Burton boldly amplifies, “the folk recount her manifestations in many cases of difficulty.”
