Then, the wedding festivities being ended, Mubarek said to Zein ul Asnam, “Come, O my lord, let us set out on our way, lest we waste the time in sloth, now we have found that whereof we were in search.”  And the prince answered him, saying, “Thou art in the right.”  So Mubarek arose and fell to equipping them for the journey; moreover, he let make the young lady a camel-litter [FN#127] with a travelling couch, [FN#128] and they set out.  But Mubarek knew that Zein ul Asnam was sunken deep in love of the damsel; so he took him and said to him, “O my lord Zein ul Asnam, I would fain remind thee to watch over thyself; nay, again I say, have a care and keep the faith which thou plightedst to the King of the Jinn.”  “O Mubarek,” answered the prince, “an thou knewest the transport which possesseth me for the love of this young lady [FN#129] and how I still think of nothing but of taking her to Bassora and going in [to her]!” And Mubarek said to him, “Nay, O my lord; keep thy troth and play not the traitor to thine oath, lest there befall thee a sore calamity and thou lose thy life and the young lady lose hers also.  Bethink thee of the oath which thou sworest and let not lust get the mastery over thine understanding, lest thou lose guerdan [FN#130] and honour and life.”  “O Mubarek,” rejoined Zein ul Asnam, “keep thou watch over her thyself and let me not see her.”  So [FN#131] Mubarek fell to keeping watch and ward over the bride in the prince’s stead and guarded the latter also, lest he should look on her; and so they journeyed on past the road leading unto Egypt and fared on their way to the Island of the Jinn.

When the bride beheld the journey (and indeed it was long upon her) and saw not her husband in all this time since the night of the bridal, she turned to Mubarek and said to him, “God upon thee, O Mubarek, tell me, I conjure thee by the life of thy lord the Amir, are we yet far from the dominions [FN#132] of my bridegroom, the Amir Zein ul Asnam?” And he said to her, “Alack, O my lady, it irketh me for thee and I will discover to thee that which is hidden.  To wit, thou deemest that Zein ul Asnam, King of Bassora, is thy bridegroom.  Far be it! [FN#133] He is not thy bridegroom.  The writing of the writ of his marriage with thee [FN#134] was but a pretext before thy parents and the folk; and now thou art going for a bride to the King of the Jinn, who sought thee from the Amir Zein ul Asnam.”  When the young lady heard these words, she fell a-weeping and Zein ul Asnam heard her and fell a-weeping also, a sore weeping, of the excess of his love for her.  And she said to them, “Is there no pity in you and no clemency and have you no fear of God, that I, a stranger maid, you cast me into a calamity like this?  What answer will you give unto God [FN#135] concerning this treason that you have wroughten with me?”