Such were Almoran and Hamet, when Solyman their father, full of days and full of honour, slept in peace the sleep of death.  With this event they were immediately acquainted.  The emotions of Almoran were such as it was impossible to conceal:  the joy that he felt in secret was so great, that the mere dread of disappointment for a moment suspended his belief of what he heard:  when his fears and his doubts gave way, his cheeks were suffused with sudden blushes, and his eyes sparkled with exultation and impatience:  he looked eagerly about him, as if in haste to act; yet his looks were embarrassed, and his gestures irresolute, because he knew not what to do:  he uttered some incoherent sentences, which discovered at once the joy that he felt, and his sense of its impropriety; and his whole deportment expressed the utmost tumult and perturbation of mind.

Upon Hamet, the death of his father produced a very different effect:  as soon as he heard it, his lips trembled and his countenance grew pale; he flood motionless a moment, like a pilgrim transfixed by lightning in the desert; he then smote his breast, and looking upward, his eyes by degrees overflowed with tears, and they fell, like dew distilling from the mountain, in a calm and silent shower.  As his grief was thus mingled with devotion, his mind in a short time recovered its tranquillity, though not its chearfulness, and he desired to be conducted to his brother.

He found him surrounded by the lords of his court, his eye still restless and ardent, and his deportment elate and assuming.  Hamet pressed hastily through the circle, and prostrated himself before him:  Almoran received the homage with a tumultuous pleasure; but at length raised him from the ground, and assured him of his protection, though without any expressions either of kindness or of sorrow:  ‘Hamet,’ says he, ’if I have no cause to complain of you as a subject, you shall have no cause to complain of me as a king.’  Hamet, whose heart was again pierced by the cold and distant behaviour of his brother, suppressed the sigh that struggled in his bosom, and secretly wiped away the tear that started to his eye:  he retired, with his looks fixed upon the ground, to a remote corner of the apartment; and though his heart yearned to embrace his brother, his modest diffidence restrained him from intruding upon the king.

In this situation were Almoran and Hamet, when Omar entered the apartment.  Omar, upon whose head the hand of time became heavy, had from his youth acquainted himself with wisdom:  to him nature had revealed herself in the silence of the night, when his lamp was burning alone, and his eyes only were open:  to him was known the power of the Seal of Solomon; and to him the knowlege of things invisible had been revealed.  Nor was the virtue of Omar inferior to his knowlege; his heart was a fountain of good, which though it flowed through innumerable streams was never dry:  yet was the virtue of Omar cloathed with humility; and he was still pressing nearer to perfection, by a devotion which though elevated was rational, and though regular was warm.  From the council of Omar, Solyman had derived glory and strength; and to him he had committed the education of his children.