When the physician heard this cruel order, he readily judged that the honours and presents he had received from the king had procured him enemies, and that the weak prince was imposed upon.  He repented that he had cured him of his leprosy, but it was now too late.  Is it thus, replies the physician, that you reward me for curing you?  The king would not hearken to him, but ordered the executioner a second time to strike the fatal blow.  The physician then had recourse to his prayers:  Alas! sir, cries he, prolong my days, and God will prolong yours; do not put me to death, lest God treat you in the same manner.  The fisherman broke off his discourse here, to apply it to the genie.  Well, genie, says he, you see that what passed then betwixt the Grecian king and his physician Douban is acted just now betwixt us.

The Grecian king, continues he, instead of having regard to the prayers of the physician, who begged him for God’s sake to spare him, cruelly replied to him, No, no; I must of necessity cut you off, otherwise you may take away my life with as much subtleness as you cured me.  The physician, melting into tears, and bewailing himself sadly for being so ill rewarded by the king, prepared for death.  The executioner bound up his eyes, tied his hands, and went to draw his scimitar.

Then the courtiers, who were present, being moved with compassion, begged the king to pardon him, assuring his majesty that he was not guilty of the crime laid to his charge, and that they would answer for his innocence; but the king was inflexible, and answered them so, as they dared not to say any more of the matter.

The physician being on his knees, his eyes tied up, and ready to receive the fatal blow, addressed himself once more to the king:  Sir, says he, since your majesty will not revoke the sentence of death, I beg, at least, that you will give me leave to return to my house, to give orders about my burial, to bid farewell to my family, to give alms, and to bequeath my books to those who are capable of making good use of them.  I have one in particular I would present to your majesty; it is a very precious book, and worthy to be laid up very carefully in your treasury.  Well, replies the king, why is that book so precious as you talk of?  Sir, says the physician, because it contains an infinite number of curious things, of which the chief is, that when you have cut off my head, if your majesty will give yourself the trouble to open the book at the sixth leaf, and read the third line of the left page, my head will answer all the questions you ask it.  The king, being curious to see such a wonderful thing, deferred his death till next day, and sent him home under a strong guard.

The physician, during that time, put his affairs in order; and the report being spread, that an unheard-of prodigy was to happen after his death, the viziers, emirs, officers of the guard, and, in a word, the whole court, repaired next day to the hall of audience, that they might be witnesses of it.