They sat down, and the princess told the prince her resolution, when in the field where they encamped the last time they were together, as soon as she perceived she waited for him to no purpose; how she went through with it, till she arrived at the isle of Ebene, where she had been obliged to marry the princess Haiatalnefous, and accept of the crown, which king Armanos offered as one of the conditions of the marriage; how the princess, whose merit she highly extolled, took her declaration of her sex; how she found the talisman in the pots of olives mingled with the gold dust; and that her finding it was the cause of her sending for him to the city of the idolaters.

When she had finished the relation of her adventure, she obliged the prince to tell his.  He informed her how the talisman occasioned their separation, and the rest of the story relating to him, as already told.  They then bemoaned one another’s ill fortune, and rejoiced in their good:  he complained of her with the kindest expressions love could invent, chiding her tenderly for making him languish so long without her; and she excused herself with the reasons already related.  After which, it growing late, they went to bed.

The princess Badoura and prince Camaralzaman rose next morning as soon as it was light; but the princess would no more put on her royal robes as king; she dressed herself in her natural dress, that of a woman, and then sent the chief eunuch to king Armanos, her father-in-law, to desire he would take the trouble to come to her apartment.

When the king entered the chamber, he was amazed to see a lady there who was unknown to him, and the lord-treasurer with her, to whom it was not permitted to come within the inner palace, nor to any of the lords of the court.  He sat down, and asked where the king was.

The princess answered, Yesterday I was king, sir; but today I am only princess of China, wife to prince Camaralzaman, the true son of king Schahzaman.  If your majesty will have patience to hear our histories, I hope you will not condemn me for putting an innocent deceit upon you.  The king bade her go on, and heard her discourse from beginning to end, with astonishment.  The princess finishing, said to him, Sir, though our religion does not suffer men to have more wives than one, without some sort of scandal, and we women do not easily comply with the custom men have introduced to have several, yet if your majesty will consent to give your daughter, the princess Haiatalnefous, in marriage to the prince Camaralzaman, I will with all my heart yield up to her the rank and quality of queen which of right belongs to her, and content myself with the second place.  If this precedence were not her due, I would, however, give it her, being obliged to her for keeping the secret so faithfully.  If your majesty approves of it, I am sure she will, and will pass my word that she will obey you with joy.