There was once a king in the land of Tabaristan, by name Dádbín, and he had two Wazirs, one called Zorkhan and the other Kárdán. The Minister Zorkhan had a daughter, there was not in her day a fairer than she nor yet a chaster or a more pious, for she was a faster, a prayer and an adorer of Allah the Almighty, and her name was Arwá. Now Dadbin, the king, heard tell of her praises; so his heart clave to her and he called the Wazir her sire and said to him, "I desire of you that you marry me to your daughter." Zorkhan, said, "O my liegest lord, suffer me to consult her, and if she consent, I will marry you with her." And the king said, "Haste you with this." So the Minister went in to his daughter and said to her, "O my daughter, the king seeks you of me and desires to marry you." She said, "O my father, I desire not a husband, and if you will marry me, marry me not but with a mate who shall be my inferior in rank and I nobler than he, so he may not turn to other than myself nor lift his eyes upon me, and marry me not to one who is nobler than I, lest I be with him as a slave girl and a serving woman." Accordingly the Wazir returned to the king and acquainted him with that which his daughter had said, whenas he redoubled in desire and love longing for her, and said to her sire, "If you marry me not to her of good grace, I will take her in your despite and by force." The Minister again betook himself to his daughter and repeated to her the king's words, but she replied,

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"I want no husband." So he returned to the king and told him what she said, and he was wroth and threatened him, whereupon the father took his daughter and fled with her. When this came to the king's knowledge, he despatched troops in pursuit of Zorkhan, to stop the road upon him, whilst he himself went out and overtaking the Wazir, smote him on the head with his mace and slew him. Then he took his daughter by force and returning to his dwelling place, went in to her and married her. Arwa resigned herself with patience to that which happened her and committed her case to Allah Almighty; and indeed she was used to serve Him night and day with a goodly service in the house of King Dadbin her husband. It befell one day that the king had occasion to make a journey; so he called his second Wazir Kardan and said to him, "I have a charge to commit to your care, and it is that lady, my wife, the daughter of the Wazir Zorkhan, and I desire that you keep her and guard her your very self, because I have not in the world anything dearer than she."

Kardan in his mind, said, "Of a truth, the king honours me with an exceeding honour in entrusting me with this lady." And he answered, "With love and all gladness." When the king had departed on his journey, Kardan said in himself, "Needs must I look upon this lady whom the king loves with all this love." So he hid himself in a place, that he might espy her, and saw her surpassing description; wherefor he was confounded at her and his wit was wildered and love gat the lordship of him, so that he sent to her, saying, "Have pity on me, for indeed I perish for the love of you." She sent back to him and replied, "O Wazir, you are in the place of faith and confidence, so do not you betray your trust, but make yours inward life like unto yours outward and occupy yourself with your wife and that which is lawful to you. As for this, 'tis mere lust and women are all of one and the same taste. And if you will not be forbidden from this talk, I will make you a byword and a reproach among folk." When the Minister heard her answer, he knew that she was chaste of soul and body; Why he repented with the utmost of repentance and feared for himself from the king and said, "Needs must I devise a device by which I may destroy her; else shall I be disgraced with the king."

Now when the king returned from his journey, he questioned Kardan of the affairs of his kingdom, and the Wazir answered, "All is right well, O king, save a vile matter, which I have espied here and with which I am ashamed to confront the sovran; but, if I hold my peace of it, I fear lest other than I discover it and I shall have played traitor to the king in the matter of my warning and my trust." Dadbin, said, "Speak, for to me you are none other than a truth teller, a trustworthy and a loyal counsellor in whatever you say, undistrusted in anything." And the Minister said, "O king, this woman to whose love your heart cleavs and of whose piety you talkest and her fasting and her praying, I will plainly prove to you that this is craft and guile." at this the king was troubled and said, "What may be the matter?" and the Wazir replied, "I would have you know that some days after your departure, one came to me and said to me, Come, O Wazir, and look. So I went to the door of the queen's sleeping chamber and behold, she was sitting with Abu al-Khayr, her father's page, whom she favours, and she did with him what she did, and such is the manner of that which I saw and heard."

When Dadbin heard this, he burnt with rage and said to one of his eunuchs, "Go and slay her in her chamber." But the eunuch said to him, "O king, Allah prolong your life! Indeed, the killing of her may not be in this way neither at this time; but do you bid one of yours Castratos take her up on a camel and carry her to one of the trackless wolds and cast her down there; so, if she be guilty, Allah shall cause her to perish, and if she be innocent, He will deliver her, and the king shall be free from default against her; for that this lady is dear to you and you slewest her father by reason of your love for her." the king said, "By God, you sayst truth!" Then he bade one of his eunuchs carry her on a camel to one of the far off wilds and cut off wolds and there leave her and go on their way, and he forbade her torment to be prolonged. So he took her up and betaking himself with her to the desert, left her there without provisions or water and returned, whereupon she made for one of the hills,

The Story Op King Dadbin And His Wazirs. 71 and ranging stones before her in form of prayer niche, stood praying. Now it chanced that a camel driver, belonging to Kisrá the king, lost certain camels, and his lord threatened him, if he found them not, that he would slay him. Accordingly he set out and plunged into the wastes till he came to the place where the lady was, and seeing her standing at prayer utterly alone, waited till she had made an end of her orisons, when he went up to her and saluted her with the salam, saying, "Who are you?" She said, "I am a hand maid of the Almighty." He asked, "What do you in this desolate place?" and she answered, "I serve Allah the Most High." When he saw her beauty and loveliness, he fell in love with her, and said to her, "Harkye! Do you take me to mate and I will be tender to you and use you with exceeding ruth, and I will further you in obedience to Allah Almighty." But she answered, saying, "I have no need of wedlock and I desire to abide here alone with my Lord and His worship; but If you would have ruth upon me and further me in the obedience of Allah the Most High, carry me to a place where there is water and you will have done me a kindness."

Thereupon he took her to a place in which was running water and setting her down on the ground, left her and went his ways, marvelling at her. After he left her, he found his camels, by her blessing, and when he returned, King Kisra asked him, "Have you found the camels?" He answered, "Yes," and acquainted him with the affair of the damsel, and detailed to him her beauty and loveliness: whereupon the king's heart clave to her and he mounted with a few men and betook himself to that place, where he found the lady and was amazed at her, because he saw her surpassing the description wherewith the camel driver had described her to him. So he accosted her and said to her, "I am King Kisra, greatest of the kings. Will you not have me to husband?" She said, "What will you do with me, O king, and I a woman abandoned in the waste?" And He said, "Needs must this be, and if you will not consent to me, I will take up my abode here and devote myself to Allah's service and your service, and with you worship the Almighty." Then he bade set up for her a tent and another for himself, facing hers, so he might adore Allah with her, and fell to sending her food; and she said in herself, "This is a king, and 'tis not lawful for me that I suffer him for my sake to forsake his subjects and his land."

Presently, she said to the serving woman, who used to bring her the food, "Speak the king that he return to his women, for he has no need of me, and I desire to abide in this place, so I may worship within it Allah the Most High." The slave girl returned to the king and told him this, whereupon he sent back to her, saying, "I have no need of the kingship and I also desire to tarry here and worship Allah with you in this waste." When she found this earnestness in him, she fell in with his wishes, and said, "O king, I will consent to that which you desire and will be to you a wife, but on condition that you bring me Dadbin the king and his Wazir Kardan and his Chamberlain the chief Eunuch, and that they be present in yours assembly, so I may speak a word with them in your presence, to the intent that you may redouble in affection for me." Kisra, said, "And what is your want unto this?" So she related to him her story from beginning to end, how she was the wife of Dadbin the king and how the Wazir Kardan had misspoken of her honour.

When King Kisra heard this, he redoubled in love longing for her and affection and said to her, "Do whatever you wiliest:" then he let bring a litter and carrying her within it to his dwelling place, entreated her with the utmost honour and espoused her. Presently, he sent a great army to King Dadbin and fetching him and his Wazir Kardan and the Eunuch chamberlain, caused bring them before him, they unknowing the while what he might purpose to do with them. Moreover, he caused set up for Arwa a pavilion in the courtyard of his palace, and she entered it and let down the curtain before herself. When the servants had set their seats and they had seated themselves, Arwa raised a corner of the curtain and said, "O Kardan, rise to your feet, for it befits not that you sit in the like of this assembly, before this mighty King Kisra." When the Wazir heard these words, his heart fluttered and his joints were loosened and he rose to his feet of his fear. Then she said to him, "By the virtue of Him who has made you stand up to judgment in this standing stead, and you abject and humiliated, I conjure you speak the truth and say what egged you on to lie against me and drive me from my home and from the land of my husband and made you practise thus against a man

The Story Op King Dadbin And His Wazirs. 73 and a Moslem so as to slay him. This is no place in which lying avails nor may artifice be in this." When the Wazir was 'ware that she was Arwa and heard her speech, he knew that it behoved him not to lie and that nothing would avail him save truth; so he bowed his head groundwards and wept and said, "whoever cloth evil, needs must he incur it, albe his day be prolonged. By God, I am he who has sinned and transgressed, and nothing prompted me unto this but fear and over mastering desire and the misery writ upon my brow. And indeed this woman is pure and chaste and free from all fault." When King Dadbin heard this, he beat his face and said to Kardan, his Wazir, "Allah slay you! 'Tis you that have parted me and my wife and wronged me!" But Kisra the king said to him, "Allah shall assuredly slay you, because you hastenedst and lookedst not into yours affair, and knew not the guilty from the guiltless. Had you wrought deliberately, the unright had been made manifest to you from the right; so when this villain Wazir purposed your ruin, where was your judgment and where went your sight?"

Then he asked Arwa, "What will you that I do with them?" and she answered, "Accomplish on them the ordinance of Almighty Allah: let the slayer be slain and the transgressor transgressed against, even as he transgressed against us; yea, and to the well doer weal shall be done even as he did unto us." So she gave her officers order concerning Dadbin and they smote him on the head with a mace and slew him, and she said, "This is for the slaughter of my sire." Then she bade set the Wazir on a beast and bear him to the desert where he had caused her to be borne, and leave him there without provisions or water; and she said to him, "If you be guilty, you will suffer the punishment of your guilt and die in the desert of hunger and thirst; but an there be no guilt in you, you will be delivered, even as I was delivered." As for the Eunuch chamber lain, who had counselled King Dadbin not to slay her, but to cause carry her to the desert, she bestowed on him a costly robe of honour and said to him, "The like of you it befits kings to hold in favour and promote to high place, for that you spoke loyally and well, and a man is requited according to his deed."

And Kisra the King made him Wali in a certain province of his empire. "Know, therefore, O king" (continued the youth), "that whoever does good is requited with good, and he who is guiltless of sin and offence fears not the issue of his affair. And I, O my liege lord, am free from guilt, Why I hope in Allah that He will show forth the truth to my auspicious king, and vouchsafe me the victory over enemies and enviers." When the king heard this, his wrath subsided and he said, "Return him to the prison till the morrow, so we may look into his case."

The Sixth Day