She is the
daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and she is a model of beauty and
loveliness, of fairest favor and formous form, and dight with symmetry
and perfect grace. When she had reached the age of nineteen, the
Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending for the Wazir her father,
said to him, `Hear me, O Wazir. It hath reached mine ear that thou
hast a daughter, and I wish to demand her of thee in marriage.' The
Wazir replied:
"`O our lord the Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion
on my sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner
with me in the wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago
and we wot not where he is. Now the cause of his departure was that
one night, as we were sitting together and talking of wives and
children to come, we had words on the matter and he went off in high
dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my daughter to none save to
the son of my brother on the day her mother gave her birth, which
was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately heard that my
brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the daughter of the
Wazir and that she bare him a son, and I will not marry my daughter
but to him in honor of my brother's memory.
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