When the monarch adding splendour to the assembly of day, that is, the world-enlightening sun, had entered the retired chamber of the west, the black haired bride of night (on every curl of whose amber tresses time had showered thousands of musk-bags of Tartary) shed perfume over the earth from her wavy locks.

VERSES.
It was a night, pleasant as the morning of life, affording delight like the season of youth.
The blackness of its tresses excited envy in the hoori, and the radiance of its moon dazzled by its brightness.
The breeze waved the locks of the sunbul, and the air scattered pearly drops of dew.

The ladies of high rank having formed a select assembly in the inner parts of the palace, like the inmates of Irim, sat in rows, as flowers in a parterre. The area of the court, from the abun­dant strewing of roses, had the beauty of spring; and peri-formed attendants, with the waving of large fans, refreshed the senses of the tulip-cheeked, hoori-envied fair ones. Jasmine-bodied compounders of essences, by the variety of their per­fumes, made the air of the apartments the regret of the plains of Thibet and Tar­tary. Vocal performers of silver-shining form, ravished the hearts of the com­pany beautiful as peries, by their soul-attracting songs; and Venus-resembling dancers, stepping into motion like the fascinated peacock, gave expression to harmony. From the crowd of magic-eyed, rose-cheeked damsels, the sea of beauty and grace arose in waves. She­reen-like smiles and Leila-resembling glances interchanged by the beauteous assemblage, made gazing hazardous to the foot of understanding.

Tyre-women of elegant fancy, having washed their hands seven times in rose-water, began to adorn the angel-looking bride. Having with a comb of sandal wood arranged the wreathy amber-scented tresses round her forehead, polished as cornelian of Yemen,* and con­ferred grace on the Goshewarra* by its binding the sun of the sky of beauty, her face resembled the moon encircled by the Pleiades. Round her neck they placed a necklace of pearl, and her waist, so slender that, like alchemy,* it existed scarcely but in name, was adorned with a girdle set with jewels.

All the bridal ornaments and robes befitting her dignity being adjusted on her cypress-envied person, she ascended the nuptial throne. Without exaggera­tion, from her dazzling beauty, the jewels reflected additional brilliancy, and the costly robes new grace. Her cheeks, like the rose, required not the fictitious bloom of the tyre-woman, and the ele­gance of form bestowed on her by heaven, was independent of borrowed grace and ornaments. The Almighty designer had formed her person in the mansion of being without an equal, and made it the most exquisite figure among all the works of creation. To her was justly applicable the following

VERSE.
Brightness like her’s could only be viewed in her own mirror; and fancy alone could conceive her equal when dreaming of herself.
The heavens, the most ancient of all crea­tion, at sight of her beauty, with all their foresight and difficulty to be pleased, fell like the insane into distraction; and the planets, to avoid being outshone, threw themselves, like grains of suppund, into the ashes of the sun.

Attendants skilled in ancient customs and the usages of courts, having adorned the bridegroom with royal robes gor­geous as Solomon’s, and splendid as those of Feredoon, conducted him to the throne of the Balkis-like bride, and placed a koraun and a mirror between them. When Jehaundar looked on the mirror, he saw the spring of beauty in full bloom, and the object of his desires in his embrace. Placing his hand on the Koraun, he said, like Joseph, “I am the unpurchased slave of this Zuleikha of the throne of beauty;” and Bherawir Banou, nodding acceptance, replied, “I am the humblest of the handmaidens of this beloved of Egypt with life and soul.”

The ladies now having showered numberless wreaths of roses and jasmine over the heads of these two stars in the firmament of royalty, and made the nissar of innumerable pearls and precious stones, the apartment was cleared, and the cypress left with the cedar in the garden of delight.

When the happy Jehaundar, under the auspices of his favourable stars, hav­ing broken the talisman of suspense from the treasure of success, had obtained pos­session of his wishes, he, like the pious, bowed the head of adoration at the throne of the divine Gratifier of hope, and offered up thanksgivings with the utmost fervour of human ability.

After some time, having expressed desires of returning to his own country, he requested the sultaun’s permission to depart; but as the surly blasts already announced the speedy accession of the monarch of winter, he did not chuse that the darling of his heart should encounter the fatigues of march, in a season, when the unfeeling army of severe cold was expected to make depredations; and therefore not consenting to his petition, the sultaun deferred it till the king of flowers should ascend his throne of enamelled foliage.