is a monastery called the Monastery of the Fire, whither every year the daughters of the Magians and worshippers of the Fire resort at the time of their festival and abide there a month, after which they return to their houses.  So I and my damsels set out, as of wont, attended by two thousand horse, whom my father sent with me to guard me; but by the way this Ghul came out against us and slew some of us and, taking the rest captive, imprisoned us in this hold.  This, then, is what befel me, O valiant champion, whom Allah guard against the shifts of Time!” And Gharib said, “Fear not; for I will bring thee to thy palace and the seat of thy honours.”  Wherefore she blessed him and kissed his hands and feet.  Then he went out from her, after having commanded to treat her with respect, and slept till morning, when he made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed a two-bow prayer, after the rite of our father Abraham the Friend (on whom be peace!), whilst the Ghul and his sons and Gharib’s company all did the like after him.  Then he turned to the Ghul and said to him, “O Sa’adan, wilt thou not show me the Wady of Blossoms?’’[FN#341] “I will, O my lord,” answered he.  So Gharib and his company and Princess Fakhr Taj and her maidens all rose and went forth, whilst Sa’adan commanded his slaves and slave-girls to slaughter and cook and make ready the morning-meal and bring it to them among the trees.  For the Giant had an hundred and fifty handmaids and a thousand chattels to pasture his camels and oxen and sheep.  When they came to the valley, they found it beautiful exceedingly and passing all degree; and birds on tree sang joyously and the mocking-nightingale trilled out her melody, and the cushat filled with her moan the mansions made by the Deity,—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say,

        When it was the Six Hundred and Thirtieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib and his merry men and the Giant and his tribe reached the Wady of Blossoms they found birds flying free; the cushat filling with her moan the mansions made by the Deity, the bulbul singing as if ’twere human harmony and the merle whom to describe tongue faileth utterly; the turtle, whose plaining maddens men for loveecstasy and the ringdove and the popinjay answering her with fluency.  There also were trees laden with all manner of fruitery, of each two kinds,[FN#342] the pomegranate, sweet and sour upon branches growing luxuriantly, the almond-apricot,[FN#343] the camphor-apricot[FN#344] and the almond Khorasan highs; the plum, with whose branches the boughs of the myrobalan were entwined tight; the orange, as it were a cresses flaming light, the shaddock weighed down with heavy freight; the lemon, that cures lack of appetite, the citron against jaundice of sovereign might, and the date, red and yellow-bright, the especial handiwork of Allah the Most High.  Of the like of this place saith the enamoured poet,