So Selim came forward and kissing the earth before the [supposed] king, praised him and related to him his story from beginning to end, till the time of their coming to that city, he and his sister, telling him how he had entered the place and fallen into the hands of the cook and that which had betided him [with him] and what he had suffered from him of beating and bonds and shackles and pinioning.  Moreover, he told him how the cook had made him his brother’s slave and how the latter had sold him in Hind and he had married the princess and become king and how life was not pleasant to him till he should foregather with his sister and how the cook had fallen in with him a second time and acquainted her with that which had betided him of sickness and disease for the space of a full-told year.

When he had made an end of his speech, his wife came forward forthright and told her story, from first to last, how her mother bought him from the cook’s partner and the people of the kingdom came under his rule; nor did she leave telling till she came, in her story, to that city [and acquainted the queen with the manner of her falling in with her lost husband].  When she had made an end of her story, the cook exclaimed, ’Alack, what impudent liars there be!  By Allah, O king, this woman lieth against me, for this youth is my rearling[FN#75] and he was born of one of my slave-girls.  He fled from me and I found him again.

When the queen heard the last of the talk, she said to the cook, ’The judgment between you shall not be but in accordance with justice.’  Then she dismissed all those who were present and turning to her brother, said to him, ’Indeed thy soothfastness is established with me and the truth of thy speech, and praised be God who hath brought about union between thee and thy wife!  So now begone with her to thy country and leave [seeking] thy sister Selma and depart in peace.’  But Selim answered, saying, ’By Allah, by the virtue of the All-knowing King, I will not turn back from seeking my sister till I die or find her, if it please God the Most High!’ Then he called his sister to mind and broke out with the following verses from a heart endolored, afflicted, disappointed, saying: 

O thou that blamest me for my heart and railest at my ill, Hadst
     them but tasted my spirit’s grief, thou wouldst excuse me
     still. 
By Allah, O thou that chid’st my heart concerning my sister’s
     love, Leave chiding and rather bemoan my case and help me to
     my will. 
For indeed I am mated with longing love in public and privily,
     Nor ever my heart, alas I will cease from mourning, will I
     or nill. 
A fire in mine entrails burns, than which the fire of the hells
     denounced For sinners’ torment less scathing is:  it seeketh
     me to slay.