"
I marvelled at his courtesy and large-heartedness and said,
"May I be thy ransom! Begin with thy sister." "Willingly,"
replied he. So she came down and behold, it was she whose hand
and wrist I had seen. "May God make me thy ransom!" said I.
"This is the damsel whose hand and wrist I saw at the lattice."
Then he sent at once for witnesses and bringing out two myriads
of dinars, said to the witnesses, "This our lord Ibrahim ben el
Mehdi, uncle of the Commander of the Faithful, seeks the hand
of my sister such an one, and I call you to witness that I
marry her to him and that he has endowed her with a dowry of
ten thousand dinars." And he said to me, "I give thee my sister
in marriage, at the dowry aforesaid." "I consent," answered I.
Whereupon he gave one of the bags to her and the other to the
witnesses, and said to me, "O my lord, I desire to array a
chamber for thee; where thou mayst lie with thy wife." But I
was abashed at his generosity and was ashamed to foregather
with her in his house; so I said, "Equip her and send her to my
house." And by thy life, O Commander of the Faithful, he sent
me such an equipage with her, that my house was too strait to
hold it, for all its greatness! And I begot on her this boy
that stands before thee.
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