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the mirror and said to him, “O my son, take this mirror whereof I bespoke thee, and now depart.” Accordingly Zein ul Asnam and Mubarek arose and calling down blessings upon the King, returned upon their steps till they came to the lake, where they sat a little and behold, up came the boat which had brought them and the genie rowing therein, whose head was as[1] the head of an elephant. Now this was by the commandment of the King of the Jinn; so they embarked with the genie and crossed with him to the other shore; after which they returned to Cairo and entering Mubarek’s house, abode there awhile till they were rested from the fatigue of the journey.
Then Zein ul Asnam turned to Mubarek and said to him, “Come, let us go to the city of Baghdad, so we may seek for a girl who shall be according to the requirement of the King of the Jinn.” And Mubarek said to him, “O my lord, we are in Cairo, the city of cities and the wonder of the world.[2] I shall without fail find a girl here and it needeth not that we go to a far
- ↑ Here we have the word mithl (as or like) which I supplied upon conjecture in the former description of the genie; see ante, p. 24, note.
- ↑ Medinetu ’l medaïn wa ujoubetu ’l aalem. It is well known (see the Nights passim) that the Egyptians considered Cairo the city of cities and the wonder of the world.
