and ruined its well and ate its fruits, and now he desireth to return it to me.”  The cadi turned to Firouz and said to him, “What sayst thou, O youth?” And he answered, “Indeed, I delivered him the garden in the goodliest of case.”  So the cadi said to the brother, “Hath he delivered thee the garden, as he saith?” And the other replied, “No; but I desire to question him of the reason of his returning it.”  Quoth the cadi, “What sayst thou, O youth?” And Firouz answered, “I returned it in my own despite, for that I entered it one day and saw the track of the lion; wherefore I feared lest, if I entered it again, the lion should devour me.  So that which I did, I did of reverence to him and for fear of him.”

Now the king was leaning back upon the cushion, when he heard the man’s words, he knew the purport thereof; so he sat up and said, “Return to thy garden in all assurance and ease of heart; for, by Allah, never saw I the like of thy garden nor stouter of ward than its walls over its trees!” So Firouz returned to his wife, and the cadi knew not the truth of the affair, no, nor any of those who were in that assembly, save the king and the husband and the damsel’s brother.[FN#176]

               KingShah Bekht and his vizier er
                        Rehwan.[FN#177]

There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, a king of the kings of the time, by name Shah Bekht, who had troops and servants and guards galore and a vizier called Er Rehwan, who was wise, understanding, a man of good counsel and a cheerful acceptor of the commandments of God the Most High, to whom belong might and majesty.  The king committed to him the affairs of his kingdom and his subjects and said according to his word, and on this wise he abode a long space of time.

Now this vizier had many enemies, who envied him his high place and still sought to do him hurt, but found no way thereunto, and God, in His fore-knowledge and His fore-ordinance from time immemorial, decreed that the king dreamt that the Vizier Er Rehwan gave him a fruit from off a tree and he ate it and died.  So he awoke, affrighted and troubled, and when the vizier had presented himself before him [and withdrawn] and the king was alone with those in whom he trusted, he related to them his dream and they counselled him to send for the astrologers and interpreters [of dreams] and commended to him a sage, for whose skill and wisdom they vouched.  So the king sent for him and entreated him with honour and made him draw near to himself.  Now there had been private with the sage in question a company of the vizier’s enemies, who besought him to slander the vizier to the king and counsel him to put him to death, in consideration of that which they promised him of wealth galore; and he agreed with them of this and told the king that the vizier would slay him in the course of the [ensuing] month and bade him hasten to put him to death, else would he surely slay him.