The Arabian Nights II (34 page)

The attendants, therefore, went immediately to the hall in the tower and swept it and wiped its pavement. Then they set up a bed for Qamar al-Zaman, on which they put a mattress, a leather cover, and a pillow, and they placed a large lantern and a candle, for that hall was dark even in the daytime. Then the guards brought Qamar al-Zaman in and stationed a eunuch at the door. Qamar al-Zaman threw himself on the bed, sad and depressed, blaming himself and regretting his unfair conduct toward his father, when regret was useless. He said to himself, “May God curse marriage and curse all girls and women—deceitful creatures! I wish that I had listened to my father and married, for it would have been better for me than being in this prison.”

Meanwhile, King Shahraman sat on his throne till sundown, when he retired with the vizier and said to him, “Vizier, you were the cause of all that has happened between me and my son, by the advice you gave me. What do you advise me now?” The vizier replied, “O King, leave your son in prison for a period of fifteen days; then summon him and command him to marry, and he will not disobey you again.” The king accepted the vizier's advice and lay down to sleep, full of anxiety for his son, for he loved him very dearly and had no other son. He used to lie without sleep every night until he put his arm under
Qamar al-Zaman's neck, and then he slept. So he passed that night, troubled and full of misgivings about his son, turning over from side to side, as if he lay on burning coals, so that he could not sleep a wink all night. His eyes ran over with tears, and he repeated the words of the poet,

My night is long, while the slanderers sleep,

And my restless heart aches with parting's pain.

I ask, while my night is prolonged by care,

“When will the light of day return again?”

And the words of another,

When I beheld the Pleiades' distracted look

And lethargy over the polestar shed,

And the Great Bear's maids in mourning unveiled,

I was convinced that their morning was dead.

As for Qamar al-Zaman, when night came, the eunuch set the lantern before him and lighted the candle, placing it in a candlestick. Then he brought him some food. Qamar al-Zaman ate a little, while he sat reproaching himself for his ill manners toward his father King Shahraman, saying to himself, “Don't you know that Adam's son is the hostage of his tongue and that a man's tongue is what casts him into perils?” He kept reproaching and blaming himself until his eyes filled with tears, and his heart burned with pain, regretting dearly what his tongue had uttered against his father and repeating the following verses,

For one slip of his tongue the youth is put to death

But when the man missteps, he does not die,

For the slip of the mouth leads to his doom,

While the slip of the foot heals by and by.

When Qamar al-Zaman finished eating, he asked for water to wash his hands, and he washed them clean of the food that adhered to them. Then he made his ablutions and performed his sundown and nightfall prayers and then sat on the bed, reciting the Koran. He recited the chapters of “The Cow,” “The Family of Imran,” “Yasin,” “The Compassionate,” “Blessed Be the King,” and “The Two Incantations,” and concluded with a prayer to God to protect him from evil.

Then he lay in bed on a mattress stuffed with ostrich down and covered on both sides with satin from Ma'din. When he wished to sleep, he took off all his clothes, except for a shirt of delicate wax cloth and a blue headcovering of the cloth of Mirv, appearing that night like the full-orbed moon. He then covered himself with a sheet of silk and fell asleep, with the lighted lantern at his feet and the burning candle at his head. He slept through the third part of the night, not knowing
what lay in store for him and what God, who knows all secrets, had decreed to befall him.

As it happened, the tower was ancient and had been deserted for many years, save for a she-demon who inhabited a Roman well inside it. She was a descendant of Satan the accursed, and her name was Maimuna, daughter of al-Dimiryat, one of the well-known kings of the demons. While Qamar al-Zaman slept, the she-demon came out of the Roman well, intending to soar up in the air, in order to eavesdrop on heaven, but when she reached the top of the well, she unexpectedly saw a light shining in the tower and was extremely surprised, for she had lived there for a great many years without seeing anything like this before. Thinking that there must be a reason behind that light, she advanced toward it and saw that it came from the hall, at whose door she found the eunuch asleep. She entered the hall and saw a bed, on which slept someone in the form of a man, with a candle burning at his head and a lantern lighted at his feet. The she-demon Maimuna marveled at the sight and advanced toward the bed, little by little, and, folding her wings, stood over the bed, removed the sheet from Qamar al-Zaman's face, and looked at him. She stood for a long time, gazing in amazement at his beauty and grace, for his face was lustrous, beaming with a light that outshone the light of the candle, his cheeks were red, his eyebrows were like arched bows, his eyelids languorous, his dark eyes seductive, and his scent like wafting musk. He was like him of whom the poet said,

I kissed him and forthwith his cheeks turned red,

And his eyes, my torment, gleamed dark and bright.

If the critics say an equal exists,

Say to them, heart, “Bring him before my sight.”

When Maimuna, daughter of al-Dimiryat, saw him, she glorified God and said, “Blessed be God the best of creators,” for she was one of the true-believing demons. She continued to gaze at Qamar al-Zaman's face for a long time, proclaiming the unity of God and envying Qamar al-Zaman's face for his beauty and grace. She said to herself, “By God, I will never harm him nor let anybody hurt him, and from every evil I will protect him with my life, for this beautiful face deserves that people should only look at it and glorify God. But how could his people neglect him in this ruined place, for if any of our evil demons came to him now, they would destroy him!” Then she bent over him and kissed him between the eyes and, drawing the sheet, covered his face with it.

Then she spread her wings and, leaving the hall behind, flew up into the air and kept soaring upward until she came near the lowest heaven, when she heard the sound of wings beating the air. She flew
toward the sound, and when she came near the source, she found that it came from a demon called Dahnash and she pounced on him like a hawk. When Dahnash saw her and knew that she was Maimuna, the daughter of the king of the demons, he feared her, began to tremble, and implored her, saying, “I conjure you by the Supreme Named and by the noble talisman engraved on the seal of Solomon to treat me kindly and hurt me not.” When she heard Dahnash's words, she felt tenderness toward him and said to him, “You have conjured me by a mighty oath, but I will not let you go unless you tell me where you have come from at this hour.” He said, “O my lady, I have come from the furthest end of China and from the Islands, and I will acquaint you with a wonderful thing I saw tonight. If you find my words to be true, let me go, and write me a note in your own hand that I am your freed slave, so that none of the demons, whether of the air or earth, flyers or divers, may challenge me.” Maimuna replied, “Tell me, Dahnash, what is it that you saw tonight? Tell me, and don't lie to me, thinking that you can escape from me by lying. I swear by the inscription on the seal of Solomon, son of David (peace be on him) that if what you say is not true, I will pluck out your feathers with my own hands and tear your skin and break your bones.” The demon Dahnash, son of Shemhurish the Flyer, said, “O my lady, if what I saw is not true, do with me what you wish.” Then he proceeded, saying, “I have come tonight from the Interior Islands of China, which belong to King Ghaiur, Lord of the Seas and the Islands and the Seven Palaces, and I have seen a daughter of his, than whom God has created none more beautiful in our time. I don't know how to describe her to you, for my tongue is unable to do it properly, but I will touch on some of her charms, as well as I can. Her hair is like the nights of separation and forsaking, and her face is like the days of union and love. Well has the poet described her when he said,

She spread three locks of her lovely black hair

One night, and showed four nights in the one night,

And with her face welcomed the full-orbed moon,

And showed two moons at once shining with light.

“She has a nose as aquiline as the edge of the polished sword, cheeks like purple wine or red anemones and lips like coral or carnelian. The water of her mouth is sweeter than wine and its taste quenches the torments of fire. Her agile tongue is moved by great intelligence; her bosom is a temptation to all who see it (Glory be to him who created and Finished it!); and her arms are round and smooth, like those of which the enamored poet said,

Her wrists, were they not by her bracelets slowed,

Would have out of their sleeves like liquid flowed.

“She has breasts which are like two perfume jars of ivory, lending their luster to the moon, a belly with folds like the folds of delicate, white Egyptian linen, leading to a waist, slender beyond imagining, over hips like hills of sand, which force her to sit, when she tries to rise, and awaken her when she sleeps. As the poet said,

Her hips hang heavy from a slender waist,

And thus afflict us both and tyrannize.

They make me stand up, when I think of them,

And force her to sit, when she tries to rise.

“They are borne by thighs like two pillars of pearl, braced only by the grace of the sheik that nestles between. And she has feet, the handiwork of the Judge and Protector, so slender that one wonders how they can carry what is above them. Other charms I omit, for neither words nor signs can do them justice.

“The father of this girl is a mighty king and an impetuous horseman, who crosses the sea to wage war by night or day, never shying away from battle or fearing death, for he is a despotic tyrant and an oppressive conqueror. He is lord of armies, provinces, islands, cities, and villages. His name is Ghaiur, King of the Seas and the Islands and the Seven Palaces. He loves his daughter, whom I have described to you, very dearly, and because of his great love for her, he collected the treasures of all the kings and built her seven palaces, each of a particular kind, the first of crystal, the second of marble, the third of Chinese iron, the fourth of onyx and other stones, the fifth of silver, the sixth of gold, and the seventh of jewels. He filled the seven palaces with rich furnishings and vessels of gold and silver and all utensils that kings may require and bade his daughter, whose name is Princess Budur, to live in each palace by turn for a certain period of the year.

“When her beauty became known, and her fame spread, all the kings sent to her father to ask for her hand in marriage, but when he consulted her on the matter, she expressed aversion and said, ‘Father, I have no wish to marry at all, for I am a sovereign princess who rules over men, and I do not wish any man to rule over me.' But the more reluctance she showed to marry, the more grew the eagerness of the suitors to have her, and all the kings of the Inner Islands of China sent her father offerings and rare gifts, with letters asking for her hand in marriage, and he repeated the proposals to her many times, but she refused and said angrily, ‘O father, if you mention marriage one more time, I will take a sword, put its hilt in the ground, and its point on my chest and lean on it until it goes through my back and kills me.' When her father heard her words, the light turned to darkness before his eyes, and his heart ached for her, for fear that she would kill herself, and he was tormented and perplexed, not knowing how to deal with her and with the kings who sought her hand. He said to her, ‘If
you absolutely refuse to marry, refrain then from going in and out.' He then confined her to her quarters, commanding ten old female attendants to guard her, and forbade her from going to the seven palaces, pretending that he was angry with her. Then he sent letters to all the kings, informing them that she had been afflicted with insanity.”

The demon Dahnash added, “My lady, it is now a year since she has been confined. I go to her every night, gaze at her, contemplating her face for a long time, and kiss her between the eyes, while she lies asleep. But because of my love for her, I never mount her or do her any harm, for her beauty is so great that everyone who sees her is jealous even of himself. I conjure you, my lady, to go back with me and see her beauty, elegance, and grace, and if after that you still wish to punish me or imprison me, do what you wish, for the command is yours.” Then he bowed his head toward the earth and dropped his wings. The she-demon Maimuna laughed at him and, spitting in his face, said, “What is this girl you speak of, for she is nothing but a pot of piss? What would you say if you saw my beloved? By God, I thought that you devil had some wonderful tale or some extraordinary news. This night, I saw a young man whom, if you saw even in your dream, you would be stunned, and your mouth would water.” Dahnash asked, “What is the story of this young man?”

She said, “Dahnash, the same thing that happened to your beloved has happened to this young man, for his father commanded him again and again to marry, but he refused until his father became angry with him and imprisoned him in the tower, where I live. When I came out tonight, I saw him.” Dahnash said to her, “My lady, show me this young man, so that I can see for myself whether or not he is more beautiful than my beloved Princess Budur, for I don't believe that she has an equal in this age.” She replied, “You are lying, you devil, you most unfortunate demon and vilest of devils, for I am certain that my beloved has no equal in this world. Are you mad to compare your beloved with mine?” He said, “For God's sake, my lady, go back with me and look at my beloved, and after that I will return with you and look at yours.” Maimuna said, “Damn you, we have to do it your way, you sly devil, but I will not go with you, and you will not come with me, unless we place a bet. If your beloved, whom you praise highly, proves more beautiful than mine, you will win, and if my beloved, whom I praise highly, proves more beautiful than yours, I will win.” Dahnash replied, “O my lady, I accept your condition gladly. Come then with me to the islands.” But Maimuna said, “My beloved is closer to us than yours; he is here beneath us. Descend with me to look at my beloved, and afterwards we will go to yours.” Dahnash replied, “I hear and obey.”