Summary

The narrator concludes the anecdote in this section. After Tamburlaine’s wife’s analogy using the eggs, the architect returned to the wife with three bowls of water. However, when the wife drank from each one, she realized that one of them was filled with vodka. The architect concluded that each bowl looked the same but tasted “quite different” (247), as is true about love.

After the architect’s analogy, the wife agreed to kiss him. After the kiss, the architect finished the mosque before Tamburlaine returned. However, because the wife could not return to the emperor’s “harem” (247) due to the alcohol she consumed, the emperor beat her until she confessed that she kissed the architect. When the emperor ordered executioners to kill the architect, the architect “grew wings” (247) and flew away.

The narrator then describes the anecdote as “geometric shapes” (247) and colored like...