to ask what was to do but none could explain it because no one knew.  So the Sultan arose forthright and, going in to his daughter, found her buffeting her face for the sake of her Bird and asked her, “What is to do with thee?” So she informed him of what had befallen her, adding, “Verily he who came into my bower and discovered me bare and looked upon me and wrote upon the palm of my hand, him I am determined to have and none other save that one.”  Quoth her father, “O my daughter, many sons of the Wazirs and the Kings have sought the bird and have failed; and now do thou suppose that he hath died;” but quoth the Princess, “I desire none save the man who found me in sleep and looked upon me, and he is the son of King So-and-so, reigning in such a capital.”  Said her father, “Then how standeth the case?” and said she, “Needs must I thank him and seek his city and marry him, for assuredly amongst the sons of the Kings, all of them, none can be fairer or more delightsome than he who hath craftily devised this entrance to me in so guarded a stead as this.  How then can anyone be his peer?"[FN#321] Hereupon her father bade muster the forces without the city and he brought out for his daughter rarities and presents and mule-litters, and they pitched the tents and after three days they loaded the loads for travel.  Then they fared for whole days and nights until they drew near the city wherein the youth had slain the Elephant and had saved the daughter of the King.  So the Sultan set up his encampment with its tents and pavilions hard by the walls, to the end that all might take their rest, but when the King of the City saw this he rode forth to visit the stranger, and after greeting asked him the cause of his coming with such a host.  The Sultan apprised him of what had happened to his daughter, how she had lost the Enchanting Bird, also how the youth had come into her bower and had written a writ upon the palm of her hand.  But when the King heard from him this account he knew and was certified that it was the same Prince who had also slain the Elephant and who had on such wise saved his daughter’s life; so he said to the Sultan, “Verily he who took the Bird belonging to thy Princess hath also married my daughter, for he hath done such-and-such deeds.”  After which he related to him the slaughter of the Elephant and all that had happened from beginning to end.  Now as soon an heard these words he cried, “By Allah, my daughter is excusable and she hath shown her insight and her contrivance;” and presently he arose and going in to her related what he had heard from the King of the City, and she wondered at the tale of the youth’s adventures and the killing of the Elephant.  They nighted in that stead and the tidings soon reached the ears of the youth’s wife, the Princess who had been saved from the Elephant, and she said to her sire, “I also needs must go to him and forgather with him.”  Hereupon the King her father bade muster his troops together with the Lords of the land