THE TWO KINGS AND THE VIZIER’S DAUGHTERS.[1]
[Aforetime] I journeyed in [many] lands and climes and towns and visited the great cities and traversed the ways and [exposed myself to] dangers and hardships. Towards the last of my life, I entered a city [of the cities of China],[2] wherein was a king of the Chosroës and the Tubbas[3] and the Cæsars.[4] Now that city had been peopled with its inhabitants by means of justice and equitable dealing; but its [then] king was a tyrant, who despoiled souls and [did away] lives; there was no wanning oneself at his fire,[5] for that indeed he
- ↑ Breslau Text, vol. xii. pp. 384–394.
- ↑ The kingdom of the elder brother is afterwards referred to as situate in China. See post, p. 150.
- ↑ Tubba was the dynastic title of the ancient Himyerite Kings of Yemen, even as Chosroës and Cæsar of the Kings of Persia and the Emperors of Constantinople respectively.
- ↑ i.e. a king similar in magnificence and dominion to the monarchs of the three dynasties aforesaid, whose names are in Arab literature synonyms for regal greatness.
- ↑ i.e. his rage was ungovernable, so that none dared approach him in his heat of passion.
