When the sun had descended to the west, a splendid throne set with jewels and its feet of gold, enamelled, was placed in the apartment of prosperity, on which the beautiful princess, most richly adorned, sat like a brilliant star in the throne of the sky. They showered gar­lands of flowers upon her head, and made offerings of rubies and pearls in such quantities, as to excite the jealousy of the ocean and the mine.

When the lucky instant for the king’s admission arrived, the attendants with­drew from the bridal chamber, from the door of which to the hall of public audience, rose-cheeked damsels, elegantly attired, whose tresses were so many curly snares for the hearts of beholders, lined the way in two rows of dazzling beauty. The king advanced, as a resplendent moon among the stars, his heart expanding like the rose at sight of the charms of the smiling maidens, but when he reached the apartment of the princess, and beheld that shining planet of the mansion of beauty, he was lost in rap­turous amazement.

When the bride and bridegroom were seated on the same throne, they seemed as two cypresses in the same border, or as the sun and moon conjoined in one sign. From their presence the throne, shining with double lustre, graced the firmament of splendour. The female attendants formed a ring about it, like planets round the sun; and having made their obeisance, began to sing and dance, playing at the same time on various instruments. One, like a moth round the lamp, turned her delicate frame about so rapidly, that the heavens stood fixed as the pole with admiration at beholding her. Another, like a Peri springing into air, beat exact time with her hands and feet. The king became so enrap­tured at their performances, that he lost the reins of discretion from his hands, and forgetting the vizier’s information, attempted to kiss the princess; who, dissembling her displeasure, gently rebuked his ardour, and filling a goblet with wine, presented it to him; but he had no sooner drank, than he fell sense­less on the pillow of sleep.

When the bridegroom of day arose from the couch of night, the ill-fated Yezzeez, on lifting his head from the slumber of folly, gazed wildly around, but perceived no ray from the sun of beauty, nor any trace of last night’s festivity. On the contrary, he found himself in a dreadful wild, still doomed to the horrors of solitude, and captivated in the snare of wretchedness. He shed showers of tears with vexation at this fresh treachery of his evil stars, and scattered dust upon his head, like mourners for the deceased, in grief for the loss of his night’s enjoyments.

In frail hope that the lost water might again be brought into his fountain, he once more hastened on the feet of search; but he had not travelled far when, to his astonishment, he suddenly beheld the walls of Oojein. His disappointment overwhelmed him with despair, and, remediless, he entered his own mansion. Having distributed the remainder of his effects to the poor, and drawn the line of celibacy over the pages of life, he quitted his family, and assumed, like the turtle-dove, an ashy-coloured vest. Bearing upon his shoulders, like Muj­jenou, a mantle of skins, he entered the circle of devotees, and fixed his abode in a forest unfrequented by man; where, for the remaining half of his age, drinking of the envenomed cup of melancholy, and piercing the adamant point of regret into his soul, he struggled restless on the thorny bed of unavailing sorrow. With tortured heart and streaming eyes, he associated only with the wild animals of the desart, until the approach of his last agonies, when he resigned the treasure of his life to the demands of death, utter­ing with his last breath the name of his beloved.

This disordered world, of frail foun­dation, is the abode of visionary decep­tion, in which those ensnared by its temptations acquire only shame and remorse. It is a store of concealed miser­ies, and those who quaff the goblet of its enjoyments swallow the bitter potion of repentance. Happy is he whom its smiles do not allure, nor its deceitfulness betray, and who, in the slumber of incautiousness, loses not the jewels of real good.