"
Thereupon one came down to him with a mug and another with an ewer
and a third with a gugglet, and he filled his pitcher, and bearing
it back, said to the damsel, "O my lady, thou lackest nothing now."
Answered she, "True, I want nothing more at this present." Quoth he,
"Speak to me and say me thy story." And quoth she: "Fie upon thee!
An thou knowest me not, I will tell thee who I am. I am Kut al-Kulub,
the Caliph's handmaiden, and the Lady Zubaydah was jealous of me, so
she drugged me with bhang and set me in this chest," presently adding:
"Alhamdolillah- praised be God- for that the matter hath come to easy
issue and no worse! But this befell me not save for thy good luck, for
thou wilt certainly get of the Caliph Al-Rashid money galore, that
will be the means of thine enrichment." Quoth Khalifah, "Is not
Al-Rashid he in whose palace I was imprisoned?" "Yes," answered she,
and he said: "By Allah, never saw I more niggardly wight than he, that
piper little of good and wit! He gave me a hundred blows with a
stick yesterday and but one dinar, for all I taught him to fish and
made him my partner, but he played me false.
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