I glanced at him with one glance of eyes which caused me a
thousand sighs, and my heart was at once taken captive-wise, so I
asked him, "O my lord and my love, tell me that whereof I questioned
thee," and he answered:
"Hearing is obeying! Know, O handmaid of Allah, that this city was
the capital of my father who is the King thou sawest on the throne
transfigured by Allah's wrath to a black stone, and the Queen thou
foundest in the alcove is my mother. They and all the people of the
city were Magians who fire adored in lieu of the Omnipotent Lord and
were wont to swear by lowe and heat and shade and light, and the
spheres revolving day and night. My father had ne'er a son till he was
blest with me near the last of his days, and he reared me till I
grew up and prosperity anticipated me in all things. Now it is
fortuned there was with us an old woman well stricken in years, a
Moslemah who, inwardly believing in Allah and His Apostle, conformed
outwardly with the religion of my people. And my father placed
thorough confidence in her for that he knew her to be trustworthy
and virtuous, and he treated her with ever-increasing kindness,
believing her to be of his own belief.
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