The ministers came to Sikandar, saying:—
“O Sháh victorious and endowed with knowledge!
Sikandar made reply:—
“O monarch of kind heart and honest speech!
I do accept thy rede and last requests,
And I will tarry in thy borders only
To compass these good matters, and herein
Take wisdom for my guide.”
The world-lord grasped
Sikandar's hand, began to wail, then pressed
The palm upon his mouth, and said: “Be God
Thy refuge. I resign my place to thee,
Depart to dust, and give my soul to Him.”
When he had placed
The Sháh's bier on the throne, had gone the way
Of royal precedent, left that grand charnel,
And made the lofty portals fast without,
He set a gibbet for Jánúsiyár,
With one for Máhiyár of equal size,
And hung those miscreants alive thereon—
Those regicides—head downward. From the host
Came warriors with stone in hand and slew them
Upon the gibbet all despiteously:
So perish every slayer of a king!
Now when the Íránians saw how much Sikandar
Was troubled for the Sháh—that noble man—
They all of them began to laud his worth,
And hailed him as the ruler of the earth.