When the vizier was ware that she was Arwa and heard her speech, he knew that it behoved him not to lie and that nought would avail him but truth-speaking; so he bowed [his head] to the ground and wept and said, ’Whoso doth evil, needs must he abide it, though his day be prolonged.  By Allah, I am he who hath sinned and transgressed, and nought prompted me unto this but fear and overmastering desire and the affliction written upon my forehead;[FN#118] and indeed this woman is pure and chaste and free from all fault.’  When King Dadbin heard this, he buffeted his face and said to his vizier, ’God slay thee!  It is thou that hast parted me and my wife and wronged me!’ But Kisra the king said to him, ’God shall surely slay thee, for that thou hastenedst and lookedst not into thine affair and knewest not the guilty from the guiltless.  Hadst thou wrought deliberately, the false had been made manifest to thee from the true; so where was thy judgment and thy sight?”

Then said he to Arwa, “What wilt thou that I do with them?” And she answered, saying, “Accomplish on them the ordinance of God the Most High;[FN#119] the slayer shall be slain and the transgressor transgressed against, even as he transgressed against us; yea, and the well-doer, good shall be done unto him, even as he did unto us.”  So she gave [her officers] commandment concerning Dadbin and they smote him on the head with a mace and slew him, and she said, “This is for the slaughter of my father.”  Then she bade set the vizier on a beast [and carry him] to the desert whither he had caused carry her [and leave him there without victual or water]; and she said to him, “An thou be guilty, thou shalt abide [the punishment of] thy guilt and perish of hunger and thirst in the desert; but, if there be no guilt in thee, thou shalt be delivered, even as I was delivered.”

As for the eunuch, the chamberlain, who had counselled King Dadbin [not to slay her, but] to [cause] carry her to the desert [and there abandon her], she bestowed on him a sumptuous dress of honour and said to him, “The like of thee it behoveth kings to hold in favour and set in high place, for that thou spokest loyally and well, and a man is still requited according to his deed.”  And Kisra the king invested him with the governance of one of the provinces of his empire.  Know, therefore, O king,” continued the youth, “that whoso doth good is requited therewith and he who is guiltless of sin and reproach feareth not the issue of his affair.  And I, O king, am free from guilt, wherefore I trust in God that He will show forth the truth and vouchsafe me the victory over enemies and enviers.”

When the king heard this, his wrath subsided and he said, “Carry him back to the prison till the morrow, so we may look into his affair.”

The Sixth Day

Of trust in god.