" At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground
before him and performed the ceremonial mourning for their father
during a full month, after which time they entered upon the wazirate
and the power passed into their hands as it had been in the hands of
their father, each doing duty for a week at a time. They lived under
the same roof and their word was one, and whenever the Sultan
desired to travel they took it by turns to be in attendance on him.
It fortuned one night that the Sultan purposed setting out on a
journey next morning, and the elder, whose turn it was to accompany
him, was sitting conversing with his brother and said to him: "O my
brother, it is my wish that we both marry, I and thou, two sisters,
and go in to our wives on one and the same night." "Do, O my
brother, as thou desirest," the younger replied, "for right is thy
recking and surely I will comply with thee in whatso thou sayest."
So they agreed upon this, and quoth Shams al-Din: "If Allah decree
that we marry two damsels and go in to them on the same night, and
they shall conceive on their bride nights and bear children to us on
the same day, and by Allah's will thy wife bear thee a son and my wife
bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they will
be cousins.
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