And the two brothers abode with their wives in all
pleasaunce and solace of life and its delights, for that indeed
Allah the Most High had chanced their annoy into joy, and on this wise
they continued till there took them the Destroyer of delights and
the Severer of societies, the Desolator of dwelling places and Gamerer
of graveyards, and they were translated to the ruth of Almighty Allah.
Their houses fell waste and their palaces lay in ruins and the kings
inherited their riches.
Then there reigned after them a wise ruler, who was just,
keen-witted, and accomplished, and loved tales and legends, especially
those which chronicle the doings of sovereigns and sultans, and he
found in the treasury these marvelous stories and wondrous
histories, contained in the thirty volumes aforesaid. So he read in
them a first book and a second and a third and so on to the last of
them, and each book astounded and delighted him more than that which
preceded it, till he came to the end of them. Then he admired whatso
he had read therein of description and discourse and rare traits and
anecdotes and moral instances and reminiscences, and bade the folk
copy them and dispread them over all lands and climes, wherefore their
report was bruited abroad and the people named them The Marvels and
Wonders of the Thousand Nights and a Night.
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