He answered, ’O damsel of beauty, I am charged with many feelings; doubts and hopes are mixed in me.  Say first who thou art, and fill my two ears with bliss.’

And she said, ’I will leave my name to other lips; surely I am the daughter of the Vizier Feshnavat, betrothed to a wandering youth,—­a barber, who sickened at the betrothal, and consoled himself with a proverb when he gave me the kiss of contract, and knew not how with truth to pay me a compliment.’

Now, Shibli Bagarag saw this was indeed Noorna bin Noorka, his betrothed, and he fell before her in love and astonishment; but she lifted him to her neck, and embraced him, saying, ’Said I not truly when I said “I am that I shall be”?  My youth is not as that of Bhanavar the Beautiful, gained at another’s cost, but my own, and stolen from me by wicked sorceries.’  And he cried, ’Tell me, O Noorna, my betrothed, how this matter came to pass?’

She said, ‘On our way to Aklis.’

She bade him grasp the Lily, and follow her; and he followed her down the rock and over the bright shells upon the sand, admiring her stateliness, her willowy lightness, her slimness as of the palm-tree.  Then she waded in the water, and began to strike out with her arms, and swim boldly,—­he likewise; and presently they came to a current that hurried them off in its course, and carried them as weeds, streaming rapidly.  He was bearing witness to his faith as a man that has lost hope of life, when a strong eddy stayed him, and whirled him from the current into the calm water.  So he looked for Noorna, and saw her safe beside him flinging back the wet tresses from her face, that was like the full moon growing radiant behind a dispersing cloud.  And she said, ’Ask not for the interpretation of wonders in this sea, for they cluster like dates on a date branch.  Surely, to be with me is enough?’

And she bewitched him in the midst of the waters, making him oblivious of all save her, so that he hugged the golden net of her smiles and fair flatteries, and swam with an exulting stroke, giving his breast broadly to the low billows, and shouting verses of love and delight to her.  And while they swam sweetly, behold, there was seen a pearly shell of flashing crimson, amethyst, and emerald, that came scudding over the waves toward them, raised to the wind, fan-shaped, and in its front two silver seats.  When she saw it, Noorna cried, ’She has sent me this, Rabesqurat!  Perchance is she favourable to my wishes, and this were well!’

Then she swayed in the water sideways, and drew the shell to her, and the twain climbed into it, and sat each on one of the silver seats, folded together.  In its lightness it was as a foam-bubble before the wind on the blue water, and bore them onward airily.  At his feet Shibli Bagarag beheld a stool of carved topaz, and above his head the arch of the shell was inlaid with wreaths of gems:  never was vessel fairer than that.