She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King that Mardas coming into the presence of Ajib, said to him, “I come to place myself under thy protection!” Quoth Ajib, “Tell me who hath wronged thee, that I may protect thee against him, though it were Sabur, King of the Persians and Turcomans and Daylamites.”  Quoth Mardas, “O King of the Age, he who hath wronged me is none other than a youth whom I reared in my bosom.  I found him in his mother’s lap in a certain valley and took her to wife She brought me a son, whom I named Sahim al-Layl, and her own son, Gharib highs, grew up on my knees and became a blasting thunderbolt and a lasting calamity,[FN#360] for he smote Al-Hamal,[FN#361] Prince of the Banu Nabhan, and slew footmen and threw horsemen.  Now I have a daughter, who befitteth thee alone, and he sought her of me; so I required of him the head of the Ghul of the Mountain, wherefore he went to him and, after engaging him in singular combat, made the master his man and took the Castle of Sasa bin Shays bin Shaddad bin Ad, wherein are the treasures of the ancients and the hoards of the moderns.  Moreover, I hear that, become a Moslem, he goeth about, summoning the folk to his faith.  He is now gone to bear the Princess of Persia, whom he delivered from the Ghul, back to her father, King Sabur, and will not return but with the treasures of the Persians.”  When Ajib heard the story of Mardas he changed colour to yellow and was in ill case and made sure of his own destruction; then he said, O Mardas, is the youth’s mother with thee or with him?”; and Mardas replied, “She is with me in my tents.”  Quoth Ajib, What is her name?”; quoth Mardas, “Her name is Nusrah.” " ’Tis very she,” rejoined Ajib and sent for her to the presence.  Now when she came before him, he looked on her and knew her and asked her, “O accursed, where are the two slaves I sent with thee?”; and she answered, “They slew each other on my account;” whereupon Ajib bared his blade and smote her and cut her in twain.  Then they dragged her away and cast her out; but trouble and suspicion entered Ajib’s heart and he cried, “O Mardas, give me thy daughter to wife.”  He rejoined, “She is one of shine handmaids:  I give her to thee to wife, and I am thy slave.”  Said Ajib, “I desire to look upon this son of an adulteress, Gharib, that I may destroy him and cause him taste all manner of torments.”  Then he bade give Mardas, to his daughter’s dowry, thirty thousand dinars and an hundred pieces of silk-brocaded and fringed with gold and an hundred pieces of silk bordered stuffs and kerchiefs and golden collars.  So he went forth with this mighty fine dowry and set himself to equip Mahdiyah in all diligence.  Such was their case; but as regards Gharib, he fared on till he came to Al-Jazirah, which is the first town of Al-Irak[FN#362] and is a walled and fortified city and he hard by it called a halt.  When the townsfolk saw his army encamped before it, they bolted the gates and manned the walls, then went to the King of the city,