When the bride illuming the world, (the sun) throwing over her head in the darkness of night a civet coloured veil, hastened from bashfulness at the keen oglers of the azure canopy, into the retired chamber of the west, the goldsmith, by consent of his wife, speeding to the abode of his charmer, seated himself in a corner; and, like the Nergus, extend­ing his eyes around, waited the rising of the moon of his mistress’s beauty. Unfortunately, from the profoundness of his reveries, sleep, the portion of mis­fortune, overpowering the heart-broken man, added insensibility to his folly. When half the night was past, the intoxicated with the wine of beauty, namely, the vizier’s lady, into whose soul the arrow of love for the goldsmith had pierced, unable to controul her passion, having left the haram, coquettishly advanced, and beheld her foolish lover, neglectful of his object, subdued by the sleep of forgetfulness, and unworthy the success of vigilance. She beckoned to an attendant, who slipped some walnuts into the bosom of that distinguished in the region of folly, and, turning back, retired into the haram.

When the globe-warming sun beamed rays of light from his eastern cavern, the goldsmith having awoke from sleep, repaired sorrowful and gloomy to his house; and the wife, by his disappointed manner, guessed that his hand had not gathered the rose of enjoyment, or the fragance of hope refreshed his sense. Having wiped his head and face from the dust, she enquired his adventures, and said, “What has been produced from the womb of chance?” He replied, “My night hath conceived nothing except hopelessness and despair; and, excepting vain expectation and anxiety, from my sleeping fortune, no consequence occurred.” The wife, opening to him the portals of encourage­ment and consolation, said, “Be not allied to gloom and melancholy, but put on fresh raiment, that ease may occur.” When the young man untied the bands of his vest, the walnuts fell from his bosom on the ground; upon which the wife, thrusting her fingers towards his senseless face, said, “O thou simpleton, doubtless thou didst reach the abode of thy charmer, but, like thy own evil star, from negligence having fallen asleep, becamest insensible that wakeful prosperity attended thy pillow. When she found thee stupid, she slipped the walnuts into thy bosom, as if to say, As yet thou art an infant in the field of love; pre­tend not to fight; but play with wal­nuts. However, to-night go again to the abode of thy mistress, and be cautious that sleep does not overcome thee’

When the bride of night, having put on her black veil, gave tidings of enjoy­ment to lovers, and refreshed the sensa­tions of the desponding with the odour of her amber locks, the goldsmith’s son, full of hope, and yet trembling with apprehension, reached the abode of his mistress. With a heart swoln with desire, and eyes full of expectation, he again sat down in the same corner, till at length the gale of hope began to wave, and the gate of prosperity was opened to his fortunes. The angel-formed Hoori enchanting lady (apparently like the proud peacock, fascinated with its own beauty, but inwardly wasting and consum­ing) having opened a door, came out. When she supposed the entrusted with the watch, and the charged with the commission of vigilance were overcome by the fumes of sleep, regarding the opportunity as a providential victory, she snatched the hand of the goldsmith, and introduced him without interruption. Unluckily, from the intoxication of desire and gladness, she attended not to the fastening of the door, but commanded her confidential attendants to renew the preparations of festivity, and begin afresh the dance and the song. A jasmine-fingered damsel poured rosy wine into silver vases, and made the circulation of the glass, like that of the heavens, unceasing. The signs of gladness and tokens of delight became apparent on the aspect of the lovers. Now one, from the spring of the other’s beauty, gathered with the eye the flowers of admiration, and drank at the sweet foun­tain of the lip of the water of life.

In this situation, when the lovers dreamt of nothing but pleasure, and even the lips of the cup at their intoxica­tion smiled like the rose-bud at the breeze, fate on the couch of happiness scowled, and fortune poured the wine of disappointment into the cup of enjoy­ment.

Suddenly, the commander of the evening guard, who is the king of night, in patroling the city, came to the vizier’s palace, that he might awaken the centi­nels from the slumber of negligence. He beheld the guards everywhere sleeping, and the gate, like the eye of the lover, wide open. Astonishment filled his mind, and he for an instant mused on what might be the reason, that at such an hour, when night had hung the cur­tain of darkness on the face of the world, the gate of the vizier’s palace should be unclosed, and why the guards should be so negligent? Feeling it his duty to explore the cause and unravel the knot of mystery, he advanced, and found all the seven portals, like the hand of the benevolent, widely expanded. He guessed that vice certainly was wakeful in this contention, and therefore entered the haram. At a distance he perceived that the goldsmith, having extended the hand of plunder, was stealing the gems of the vizier’s honour, and, from his poverty, esteemed as precious the posses­sion of such a treasure. At sight of this circumstance, the flames of wrath blazed in his mind, and rushing in without delay, he loudly exclaimed, “O heedless wretches, unmindful of God! what flame of evil is this, which you have kindled in the storehouse of your existence!”

The goldsmith instantly, on this occurrence, fainted away with dread; and the vizier’s wife also turning aghast, let fall the chrystal of happiness, and shed the wine of felicity from the cup of her fancy on the ground of despair. The lady made a signal to an attendant, that she should present a large sum of money to the officer, and entreat him, that depart­ing not aside from the path of sympathy, he would observe the customs of indul­gence to venial faults. The officer did not in the least attend to the gold, and would not usher the request into the place of acceptance. He then dragged forth the two desponding wretches in the most disgraceful manner, (may such never again happen to lovers) and with humiliation, greater than which cannot be imagined, confined them in the prison.

The lady, when she saw that the door of hope was on every side shut up, and the business extended even to the destruction of her existence, remained like a dot in the circle of apprehension. As much as she coursed the steed of reflection in the plain of contrivance, no end appeared to the expanse of despair. As she had heard, from the conversation of her ideot gallant the goldsmith, some­thing of his wife, and in some degree obtained information of her wit and ingenuity, she therefore made signs to an attendant, who of penetration and judgment had an ample share, that with the utmost speed conveying herself to the goldsmith’s house, she should throw into it a bowl. This being done, the goldsmith’s wife, from her quick pene­tration, instantly guessed that the bowl of the two lovers had fallen from the battlement, and fortune unfavourable, cast a difficult impediment in the way of the two broken-hearted. Rising with all speed, she opened the door, and beheld a woman veiled waiting the echo of her bowl; of whom she enquired, saying, “At a season when fowls and fish are at rest, for what cause and in such hurry art thou come?” The handmaid informed her of the distressed state of the two unfortunate wretches, and disclosed the particulars of the acci­dent.

The goldsmith’s wife, when she understood this intricate case, perfumed some wet sweetmeats with musk and amber, put them into the bowl; and having tied up a sum of money in a corner of her veil, hastened with the utmost speed and celerity towards the house of mourning. Having invoked blessings and praises on the keepers of the prison, she besought their permission to enter, saying, “I had a favourite object, and made a vow, that when the gem of desire should come into my hand, I would give a treat of confectionary to the imprisoned. God, under the aus­pices of the fortunate aspirations of such virtuous personages as your­selves, favoured by heaven, having conducted my design to success, I am now come, that I may discharge the obligation of my vow.” When she had finished her speech, she laid the money she had brought at their feet, and the keepers, highly gratified with the present, immediately allowed her to enter.

The artful wife, with many flatteries and soothing words, passed under the very beards of the half intoxicated fools, and hastened into the prison. Having distributed her confectionary to the dif­ferent prisoners in their turn, she came to the two sovereigns of the regions of love and beauty, who, like the moon and mercury, had met in the mansion of inauspicious conjunction. The vizier’s lady (taking the hint) swift as the light-footed breeze, rising up and seizing the bowl from the goldsmith’s wife, with her handmaid, passed (unsuspected) to her own palace. The goldsmith’s wife sat down in her place as a prisoner by the side of her husband.

When the queen enlightening the world, (the sun) having left the mansions of the east, had ascended the gilded throne of the heavens, the officer of the night, exulting and rejoicing, hastened to the presence of the other vizier, with whom, as the minister had entertained some disgust against his colleague, he hoped the discovery of his family dis­grace would give him credit. He related all the particulars. The noble vizier, astonished at the circumstances, at first refused his assent, and said to himself, “How can the occurrence of such an improbable event have belief? Cer­tainly the magistrate of the night must have fallen into a great error; for how could it be possible, with the existence of the state attendance, the dread of the power of the vizier, and the numbers stationed round his palace, that a mean goldsmith should venture on such a business?” However, as the officer, being resolute in asseveration, renewed his declarations, the vizier with some of his confidential attendants repaired to the prison, and commanded that they should bring before him the minister’s lady and the adulterous gold­smith.

When they were brought, the gold­smith’s wife uplifted the cry of oppres­sion, and complaining of the injustice of the magistrate of the night, exclaimed; “In an age of the impartial justice of such a virtuous sovereign, and a vizier like thyself the emblem of disin­terestedness; when the wolf is a shep­herd, and the thief a watchman; to us, the helpless preys of cruelty, a hard­ship has occurred, at which the eyes of the planets are astonished, and the heavens trembling for their own safety. In short, last night, my husband and myself, according to known cus­tom, reposed on the bed of refresh­ment. The drunken magistrate, forgetful of God, rushing suddenly upon us, without accusation, crime or guilt, dragged us out by the hair, and binding our hands and necks, like murderers deserving death, with iron fetters, placed us in the cell of the dwellers in prison, and afflicted us with various tortures.”

The vizier having engaged in obtaining the proper information, when he found the woman’s declaration worthy of credit, and the filth of oppression apparent on the vest of the weak magis­trate, was highly enraged at such an improper act of that officer; and having released the goldsmith and his artful wife with thousands of apologies, committed the chief of the police for the crime of insufficiency, with many reproaches and humiliations, to prison. Thus did the goldsmith’s wife, by the invention of such a wonderful trick and astonishing deceit, free these two desponding lovers from such a life-endangering snare.