Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp | Page 8

seventh day he arose and going
forth to the Divan, sat down on the throne of the sultanate and held a
court, wherein was a great assemblage of the folk, [FN#34] and the
viziers came forward and the grandees of the realm and condoled with
him for his father and called down blessings upon him and gave him
joy of the kingship and the sultanate, beseeching God to grant him
continuance of glory and prosperity without end.
When [FN#35] Zein ul Asnam saw himself in this great might and
wealth, and he young in years, he inclined unto prodigality and to the
converse of springalds like himself and fell to squandering vast sums
upon his pleasures and left governance and concern for his subjects.
The queen his mother proceeded to admonish him and to forbid him
from his ill fashions, bidding him leave that manner of life and apply
himself governance and administration and the ordinance of the realm,
lest the folk reject him and rise up against him and expel [FN#36] hira;
but he would hear not a word from her and abode in his ignorance and

folly. At this the people murmured, for that the grandees of the realm
put out their hands unto oppression, whenas they saw the king's lack of
concern for his subjects; so they rose up in rebellion against Zein ul
Asnam and would have laid violent hands upon him, had not the queen
his mother been a woman of wit and judgment and address, and the
people loved her; so she appeased the folk and promised them good.
Then she called her son Zein ul Asnam to her and said to him, "See, O
my son; said I not to thee that thou wouldest lose thy kingship and eke
thy life, an thou persistedst in this thine ignorance and folly, in that
thou givest the ordinance of the sultanate into the hands of raw youths
and eschewest the old and wastest thy substance and that of the realm,
squandering it all upon lewdness and the lust of thy soul?"
Zein ul Asnam hearkened to his mother's rede and going out forthright
to the Divan, committed the manage of the realm into the hands of
certain old men of understanding and experience; save that he did this
only after Bassora had been ruined, inasmuch as he turned not from his
folly till he had spent and squandered all the treasures of the sultanate
and was become exceeding poor. Then he betook himself to repentance
and to sorrowing over that which he had done, [FN#37] so that he lost
the solace of sleep and eschewed meat and drink, till one night of the
nights,--and indeed he had spent it in mourning and lamentation and
melancholy thought until the last of the night,-- his eyes closed for a
little and there appeared to him in his sleep a venerable old man, who
said to him, "O Zein ul Asnam, grieve not, for that nought followeth
after grief save relief from stress, and an thou desire to be delivered
from this thine affliction, arise and betake thee to Cairo, where thou
wilt find treasuries of wealth which shall stand thee in stead of that
thou hast squandered, ay, and twofold the sum thereof." When he
awoke from his sleep, he acquainted his mother with all that he had
seen in his dream, and she fell to laughing at him; but he said to her,
"Laugh not, for needs must I journey to Cairo." "O my son," answered
she, "put not thy trust in dreams, for that they are all vain fancies and
lying imaginations." And he said to her, "Nay, my dream was a true
one and the man whom I saw is of the Friends of God [FN#38] and his
speech is very sooth."
Accordingly, he left the sultanate and going forth a-journeying one
night of the nights, took the road to Egypt [and fared on] days and

nights till he came to the city of Cairo. So he entered it and saw it a
great and magnificent city; then, being perished for weariness, he took
shelter in one of its mosques. When he had rested awhile, he went forth
and bought him somewhat to eat; and after he had eaten, he fell asleep
in the mosque, of the excess of his weariness, nor had he slept but a
little when the old man appeared to him in his sleep and said to him, "O
Zein ul Assam, [FN#39] thou hast done as I said to thee, and indeed I
made proof of thee, that I might see an thou wert valiant or not; but
now I know thee, inasmuch as thou hast put faith in my rede and hast
done according thereto. So now return to thine