“O Friend hereon seated be blythe and gay * Unless hereto bound
     and debarred of way."[FN#194]

Then they set upon them settees for seats whereupon were inscribed these couplets,

“O Seat, be thy beauty increased evermore; * Fair fall thee with
     happiness choice and meet;
An I fail in life through my slip and sin, * To-morrow in Heav’n
     I’ll give thee seat.”

Then[FN#195] the attendants decorated the whole Palace until it became like unto one of the Mansions of Heaven, and when the women had done her bidding, Al-Hayfa was much pleased, so she took one of the slave-girls by the hand and walked with the rest of them around the Palace considering its artifice and its embellishment, especially the paintings which covered the walls; and they rejoiced thereat, marvelling at the cunning decorations and they were grateful to the Architects who had builded and presented all these representations.  And when Al-Hayfa reached the terrace- roof of the Palace she descended by its long flight of steps which led to the river-side, and bidding the door be thrown open she gazed upon the water which encircled it like ring around finger or armlet round arm, and admired its breadth and its swiftness of streaming; and she magnified the work and admired the gateway of steel for its strength and power of defence and sued for pardon of Almighty Allah.[FN#196]—­And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say.  Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

The Six Hundred and Seventieth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will.”  It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Al-Hayfa sued pardon of Allah the Great and took refuge with the Almighty from Satan the Stoned, after which said she, “There is no diverter to whatso is doomed by the Lord nor availeth aught of solicitude against that commanded by the Omnipotent, the All-puissant; and His power is upon me with His destiny and needs must it come to pass.”  Then she called for a pen-case of gold and she wrote for placing over the gateway of the Palace the following couplets,[FN#197]

“Behold here’s a mansion like ‘Home of Delight’ * Whose sight
     heals the sick and abates all blight: 
Here are roe-like maidens with breasts high raised * And with
     charms of the straightest stature bedight: 
Their eyes prey on the lion, the Desert’s lord.