When it was the Four Hundred and Ninety-ninth Night,

Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, tell us one of thy fair tales, so therewith we may cut short the waking hours of this our night,” and quoth Shahrazad:—­It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that the Shaykh again appeared to the Prince in a vision and said to him, “O Zayn al-Asnam, though hast obeyed me in whatso I bade thee and I only made trial of thee to test an thou be valiant or a craven.  But now I wot thy worth, inasmuch as thou hast accepted my words and thou hast acted upon my advice:  so do thou return straightway to thy capital and I will make thee a wealthy ruler, such an one that neither before thee was any king like unto thee nor shall any like unto thee come after thee.”  Hereat Zayn al-Asnam awoke and cried “Bismillah,—­in the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate—­what be this Shaykh who verily persecuted me until I travelled to Cairo; and I having faith in him and holding that he was either the Apostle (whom Allah save and assain!) or one of the righteous Hallows of God; and there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!  By the Lord, but I did right well in not relating my dream to any save to my mother, and in warning none of my departure.  I had full faith in this oldster; but now, meseemeth, the man is not of those who know the Truth (be He extolled and exalted!); so by Allah I will cast off all confidence in this Shaykh and his doings.”  With this resolve the Prince slept that night in the Mosque and on the morrow took horse and after a few days of strenuous travel arrived at his capital Bassorah.  Herein he entered by night, and forthright went in to his mother who asked him, “Say me, hast thou won aught of whatso the Shaykh promised thee?” and he answered her by acquainting her with all his adventure.  Then she applied her to consoling and comforting him, saying, “Grieve not, O my son; if Almighty Allah have apportioned unto thee aught thou shalt obtain it without toil and travail.[FN#18] But I would see thee wax sensible and wise, abandoning all these courses which have landed thee in poverty, O my son; and shunning songstresses and commune with the inexperienced and the society of loose livers, male and female.  All such pleasures as these are for the sons of the ne’er-do-well, not for the scions of the Kings thy peers.”  Herewith Zayn al-Asnam sware an oath to bear in mind all she might say to him, never to gainsay her commandments, nor deviate from them a single hair’s breadth; to abandon all she should forbid him, and to fix his thoughts upon rule and goverance.  Then he addrest himself to sleep, and as he slumbered, the Shaykh appeared to him a third time in vision, and said, “O Zayn al-Asnam, O thou valorous Prince; this very day, as soon as thou shalt have shaken off thy drowsiness, I will fulfil my covenant with thee.  So take with thee a pickaxe, and hie to such a palace of thy