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appeared to him a ring fixed in a slab of marble. He raised the slab and seeing a stair, descended thereby and found a great vault, all builded with columns of marble and alabaster; then, proceeding innerward, he found within the vault a hall which ravished the wit, and therein eight jars of green jasper;[1] and he said, “What be these jars and what is in them?” So[2] he went up and uncovering them, found them all full of old gold;[3] whereupon he took a little in his hand and going to his mother, gave her thereof and said to her, “Thou seest, O my mother.” She marvelled at this thing and said to him, “Beware, O my son, lest thou squander it, like as thou squanderedst other than this.” And he swore to her, saying, “Be not concerned, O my mother, and let not thy heart be other than easy on my account, for I would fain have thee also content with me.”[4]
Then she arose and went with him, and they descended into the vault and entered the [underground] hall,[5] where
- ↑ Or “jade” (yeshm).
- ↑ Night D.
- ↑ Edh dheheb el atic. Burton, “antique golden pieces”; but there is nothing to show that the gold was coined.
- ↑ The “also” in this clause seems to refer to the old man of the dream.
- ↑ Keszr, lit. palace, but commonly meaning, in modern Arabic, an upper story or detached corps de logis (pavilion in the French sense, an evident misnomer in the present case).
