apartment in the palace together with its furniture and decorations, that she might better know the condition of me and thee.  Now all this did I on thy account only, for thou badest me show compassion to the ancient woman and I was rejoiced to see her departing safe and sound and in the best of spirits.  Save her alone, no human being had ever power to know aught of this place, much less to come hither.”  Prince Ahmad hearing these words thanked and praised her and said, “O sun-faced beauty, I would beg of thee to grant me a boon whereof my father hath made request of me; to wit, a Shahmiyanah of such dimensions that it may shelter him and his many, his camp and bat-cattle and withal may be carried in the hollow of the hand.  An such marvel exist I wot not, yet would I do my utmost to procure it, and carry it to him right loyally.”  Quoth she, “Why trouble thyself for so small a matter?  I will forthright send for it and give it thee.”  Then she summoned one of her handmaids who was treasurer to her and said, “O Nur Jehan,[FN#343] go thou at once and bring me a pavilion of such and such a fashion.”  So she fared forth without delay and as quickly came back with the pavilion which, at her lady’s bidding, she placed in the palm of Prince Ahmad’s hand.  —­And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad held her peace till

       The end of the Six Hundred and Sixty-second Night.

Then said she:—­I have heard, O auspicious King, that Prince Ahmad hent the pavilion in hand and thought to himself, “What is this Peri-Banu giveth me?  Surely she doth make a mock of me.”  His wife, however, reading his mind in his face fell to laughing aloud, and asked, “What is it, O my dearling Prince?  Dost thou think that I am jesting and jibing at thee?” Then she continued, addressing the treasurer Nur Jehan, “Take now yon tent from Prince Ahmad and set it upon the plain that he may see its vast size and know if it be such an one as required by the Sultan his sire.”  The handmaid took the pavilion and pitched it afar from the Palace; and yet one end thereof reached thereto from the outer limit of the plain; and so immense was its size that (as Prince Ahmad perceived) there was room therein for all the King’s court; and, were two armies ranged under it with their camp-followers and bat-animals, one would on no wise crowd or inconvenience the other.  He then begged pardon of Peri-Banu saying, “I wot not that the Shahmiyanah was so prodigious of extent and of so marvellous a nature; wherefore I misdoubted when first I saw it.”  The Treasurer presently struck the tent and returned it to the palm of his hand; then, without stay or delay, he took horse and followed by his retinue rode back to the royal presence, where after obeisance and suit and service he presented the tent.  The Sultan also, at first sight of the gift, thought it a small matter, but marvelled with extreme marvel to see its size when pitched, for it would have shaded his capital and its suburbs.  He was not, however, wholly