So the Wazir sent for the kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote
out the marriage contract, after which the slaves perfumed the
guests with incense, and served them with sherbet of sugar and
sprinkled rose-water on them, and all went their ways. Then the
Wazir bade his servants take Nur al-Din to the hammam baths and sent
him a suit of the best of his own especial raiment, and napkins and
towelry and bowls and perfume-burners and all else that was
required. And after the bath, when he came out and donned the dress,
he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth night, and he mounted
his mule and stayed not till he reached the Wazir's palace. There he
dismounted and went in to the Minister and kissed his hands, and the
Wazir bade him welcome, saying: "Arise and go in to thy wife this
night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray
Allah bless thee with all manner of weal." So Nur al-Din left him
and went in to his wife the Wazir's daughter.
Thus far concerning him, but as regards his elder brother, Shams
al-Din, he was absent with the Sultan a long time, and when he
returned from his journey he found not his brother, and he asked of
his servants and slaves, who answered: "On the day of thy departure
with the Sultan, thy brother mounted his mule fully caparisoned as for
state procession saying, 'I am going towards Kalyub town, and I
shall be absent one day or at most two days, for my breast is
straitened, and let none of you follow me.
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