On the third day I said to myself, “Thou art mad or witless!” For I was going about in quest of a woman who knew me and I knew her not, seeing that indeed she was veiled, [whenas I saw her].  Then I went round about the third day till the hour of afternoon prayer, and sore was my concern and my chagrin, for I knew that there abode to me of my life but [till] the morrow, when the chief of the police would seek me.  When it was the time of sundown, I passed through one of the streets, and beheld a woman at a window.  Her door was ajar and she was clapping her hands and casting furtive glances at me, as who should say, “Come up by the door.”  So I went up, without suspicion, and when I entered, she rose and clasped me to her breast 1 marvelled at her affair and she said to me, “I am she whom thou depositedst with Amin el Hukm.”  Quoth I to her, “O my sister, I have been going round and round in quest of thee, for indeed thou hast done a deed that will be chronicled in history and hast cast me into slaughter[FN#100] on thine account.”  “Sayst thou this to me,” asked she, “and thou captain of men?” And I answered, “How should I not be troubled, seeing that I am in concern [for an affair] that I turn over and over [in my mind], more by token that I abide my day long going about [searching for thee] and in the night I watch its stars [for wakefulness]?” Quoth she, “Nought shall betide but good, and thou shalt get the better of him.”

So saying, she rose [and going] to a chest, took out therefrom six bags full of gold and said to me, “This is what I took from Amin el Hukm’s house.  So, if thou wilt, restore it; else the whole is lawfully thine; and if thou desire other than this, [thou shalt have it;] for I have wealth in plenty and I had no design in this but to marry thee.”  Then she arose and opening [other] chests, brought out therefrom wealth galore and I said to her, “O my sister, I have no desire for all this, nor do I covet aught but to be quit of that wherein I am.”  Quoth she, “I came not forth of the [Cadi’s] house without [making provision for] thine acquittance.”

Then said she to me, “To-morrow morning, when Amin el Hukm cometh, have patience with him till he have made an end of his speech, and when he is silent, return him no answer; and if the prefect say to thee, ’What ailest thee that thou answereth him not?’ do thou reply, ’O lord, know that the two words are not alike, but there is no [helper] for him who is undermost[FN#101], save God the Most High.’[FN#102] The Cadi will say, ’What is the meaning of thy saying,” The two words are not alike"?’ And do thou make answer, saying, ’I deposited with thee a damsel from the palace of the Sultan, and most like some losel of thy household hath transgressed against her or she hath been privily murdered.  Indeed, there were on her jewels and raiment worth a thousand dinars, and hadst thou put those who are with thee of slaves and slave-girls to the question, thou hadst assuredly lit on some traces [of the crime].’