When he saw
the figure and would have taken off the swathings to look upon
the body, the fear of God the Most High restrained him, and the
old woman (taking advantage of his hesitation) said, 'Restore her
to her place.' Then he sent at once for readers and doctors of
the Law and caused recitations of the Koran to be made over her
grave and sat by it, weeping, till he lost his senses. He
continued to frequent the tomb for a whole month, at the end of
which time, he chanced one day, after the Divan had broken up and
his Amirs and Viziers had gone away to their houses, to enter the
harem, where he laid down and slept awhile, whilst one damsel sat
at his head, fanning him, and another at his feet, rubbing them.
Presently he awoke and opening his eyes, shut them again and
heard the damsel at his head say to her at his feet, 'Hist,
Kheizuran!' 'Well, Kezib el Ban?' answered the other. 'Verily,'
said the first, 'our lord knows not what has passed and watches
over a tomb in which there is only a carved wooden figure, of the
carpenter's handiwork.' 'Then what is become of Cout el Culoub?'
enquired the other. 'Know,' replied Kezib el Ban. 'that the Lady
Zubeideh bribed one of her waiting-women to drug her with henbane
and laying her in a chest, commanded Sewab and Kafour to take it
and bury it among the tombs.' Quoth Kheizuran, 'And is not the
lady Cout el Culoub dead?' 'No,' replied the other; 'God preserve
her youth from death! but I have heard the Lady Zubeideh say that
she is with a young merchant of Damascus, by name Ghanim ben
Eyoub, and has been with him these four months, whilst this our
lord is weeping and watching anights over an empty tomb.
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