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his covenant with me so strictly but[1] that he desired her for his bride. However, I know the frailty of human nature and withal I think greatly of him that he guarded her and kept her unsullied and withdrew himself from her;[2] wherefore I accept this his constancy and bestow her on him as a bride. She is the ninth image, which I promised him should be with him, and certes she is fairer than all these images of jewels, inasmuch as her like is rarely found in the world.” Then the King of the Jinn turned to Zein ul Asnam and said to him, “O Prince Zein ul Asnam, this is thy bride; take her and go in to her, on condition that thou love her and take not unto her a second [wife]; and I warrant thee of the goodliness of her fidelity to-thee-ward.” Therewithal he vanished from them and Zein ul Asnam went out, glad and rejoicing in the young lady;[3] and of [the excess of] his love for her he went in to her that
- ↑ Night DXIII.
- ↑ Or (vulg.) “I thank him, etc.” (istekthertu aleihi elladhi hefitsaha wa sanaha wa hejeba rouhahu anha). Burton, “Albeit I repeatedly enjoined him to defend and protect her until he concealed from her his face.”
- ↑ Or we may read “went out, glad and rejoicing, with (bi) the young lady;” but the reading in the text is more consonant with the general style of the Nights.
