Hyjauje involuntarily exclaimed, “Praised be God, who giveth wisdom to whom it pleaseth him; but I have found none so learned of such tender age.”  Having thus spoken, he put many other questions to the youth in every science, and he answered them so readily that the tyrant was overcome with admiration, and offered him a residence at his court; but the young man declined it, and requested his dismission, which he granted, conferring upon him a beautiful female slave richly habited, a thousand pieces of gold, and a steed elegantly caparisoned.  The courtiers were astonished at the bounty of the tyrant, which he perceiving, said, “Be not surprised, for the advice he hath given me was worthy of reward, and ‘Cursed is he who doth not requite a sincere adviser,’ declareth our sacred Koran.”

Story of ins al Wujjood and Wird al
Ikmaum, daughter of Ibrahim, vizier to
sultan Shamikh.

Many ages past there was a very powerful sultan who had a vizier named Ibrahim, and this minister had a daughter the most beautiful of her sex and accomplished of her age, so that she became distinguished by the appellation of Wird al Ikmaum, or the rose among flowers.  It was the custom of sultan Shamikh to hold annually a general assembly of all the nobles of his kingdom, and persons eminent for science or the arts, during which they were magnificently entertained at the royal expense.  The former displayed their prowess in martial exercises before the sovereign, and the latter the productions of their genius and skill; when valuable prizes were bestowed by the arbitration of appointed judges on those who deserved them.  On one of the days of this festival, the vizier’s daughter from a latticed balcony of the palace, in which she sat to view the sports, was so struck with the manly figure and agility of a young nobleman named Ins al Wujjood (or the perfection of human nature), that love took possession of her mind.  She pointed him out to a female confidant, and gave her a letter to convey to the object of her affections.  The young nobleman, who had heard her praises, was enraptured by his good fortune, and the next day, having obtained as full a sight of her beauties as could be had through the golden wires of the balcony, retired overcome by love.  Letters now passed daily, and almost hourly, between them; but they were impatient (or a meeting, which was at length planned; but the note fixing the place and time was unfortunately dropped by the confidant and carried to the vizier; who, alarmed for the honour of his family, sent his daughter the same night to a far distant castle belonging to himself, and situated on an island in a vast lake, surrounded by mountainous deserts thinly inhabited.  The unfortunate lady was obliged to submit to her fate, but before her departure contrived to write on the outside of her balcony the following words, “They