Bedreddin kept on the pastry trade at Damascus, whence his uncle Sehemseddin departed three days after his arrival; he went by the way of Emaus, Hanah, and Halep; then crossed the Euphrates; and, after passing through Mardin, Moussoul, Singier, Diarbeker, and several other towns, arrived at last at Balsora; and, immediately after his arrival, desired audience of the sultan, who was no sooner informed of Schemseddin’s quality, than he received him very favourably, and asked him the occasion of his journey to Balsora.  Sir, replied the vizier Schemseddin, I come to know what is become of the son of Noureddin Ali, my brother, who has had the honour to serve your majesty.  Noureddin, said the sultan, has been dead a long while:  as to his son, all I can tell you of him is, that he disappeared very suddenly about two months after his father’s death, and nobody has seen him since, notwithstanding all the inquiry I ordered to be made; but his mother, who is the daughter of one of my viziers, is still alive.  Schemseddin desired leave of the sultan to see her, and carry her to Egypt; and having obtained his request, without tarrying till next day for the satisfaction of seeing her, inquired her place of abode, and that very hour went to her house, accompanied by his daughter and grandson.

The widow of Noureddin resided still in the same house where her husband had lived:  it was a very magnificent structure, adorned with marble pillars; but Schemseddin did not stop to view it.  At his entry, he kissed the gate, and the piece of marble upon which his brother’s name was written in letters of gold.  He desired to speak with his sister-in-law, and was told by the servants that she was then in a small edifice, in the form of a dome, which they showed him, in the middle of a very spacious court.  This tender mother used to spend the greater part of the day, as well as the night, in that room, which she had built in order to represent the tomb of Bedreddin, whom she supposed to be dead after so long an absence.  At this very instant she was shedding tears at the thoughts of her dear child; and Schemseddin entering, found her labouring under that affliction.  He paid his compliments, and, after beseeching her to suspend her tears and groans, gave her to know that he had the honour to be her brother-in-law, and acquainted her with the occasion of his journey from Cairo to Balsora.  Schemseddin, after relating all that had passed at Cairo on his daughter’s wedding-night, and the surprise occasioned by the discovery of the paper sewed up in Bedreddin’s turban, presented to her Agib and the beautiful lady.