he had lived for a long while of his age without having issue male or female.  Wherefor he was full of cark and care wanting one who after him would preserve his memory, so he said in his mind one night of the nights, ’Whenas I die cut off shall be my name, and effaced shall be my fame nor shall anyone remember me.’  So saying he raised both hands to Heaven and humbled himself before Allah (be He extolled and exalted!) to vouchsafe him a child who should outlive him with the view that man might not lose the memory of him.  Now one night as he was sleeping a-bed dreaming and drowned in slumber behold, he heard a Voice (without seeing any form) which said to him, ’O Mihrjan the Sage, and O King of the Age, arouse thee this moment and go to thy wife and lie with her and know her carnally, for she shall indeed conceive of thee at this very hour and bear thee a child which, an it be a boy shall become thine aider in all thine affairs but will, an it prove a girl, cause thy ruin and thy destruction and the uprooting of thy traces.’  When Al-Mihrjan heard from the Speaker these words and such sayings, he left his couch without stay or delay in great joy and gladness and he went to his wife and slept with her and swived her and as soon as he arose from off her she said, ’O King of the Age, verily I feel that I have become pregnant; and (Inshallah—­if Almighty Allah please!) this shall prove the case.’[FN#179] When Al-Mihrjan heard the words of his wife he was glad and rejoiced at good news and he caused that night be documented in the archives of his kingdom.  Then, when it was morning he took seat upon the throne of his kingship and summoned the Astrologers and the Scribes of characts and Students of the skies and told them what had been accomplished to him in his night and what words he had heard from the Voice; whereupon the Sages one and all struck tables of sand and considered the ascendant.  But each and every of them concealed his thought and hid all he had seen nor would any return a reply or aught of address would supply; and said they, ’O King of the Age, verily appearances in dreams hit the mark at times and at times fly wide; for when a man is of a melancholic humour he seeth in his sleep things which be terrible and horrible and he waxeth startled thereat:  haply this vision thou hast beheld may be of the imbroglios of dreams so do thou commit the reins to Him who all overreigns and the best Worker is He of all that wisheth and willeth He.’  Now when Al-Mihrjan heard these words of the Sages and the Star-gazers he gifted and largessed them and he freed the captives in prison mewed and he clothed the widows and the poor and nude.  But his heart remained in sore doubt concerning what he had heard from the Voice and he was thoughtful over that matter and bewildered and he knew not what to do; and on such wise sped those days.  Now, however, returneth the tale to the Queen his Consort who, when her months had gone by, proved truly to be pregnant and her condition showed itself, so she