' When the King heard this, he
was sore enraged and bade beat the sorcerer and clap him in
prison, whilst he himself cast the crown from his head and
buffeted his face and beat upon his breast. Moreover, he shut
the doors of his palaces and gave himself up to weeping and
lamentation, he and his wife and daughters and all the folk of
the city; and [thus] their joy was turned to mourning and their
gladness changed into chagrin and sore affliction.
Meanwhile, the horse gave not over soaring with the prince,
till he drew near the sun, whereat he gave himself up for lost
and was confounded at his case, repenting him of having mounted
the horse and saying in himself, 'Verily, this was a plot of
the sage to destroy me; but there is no power and no virtue but
in God the Most High, the Supreme! I am lost without recourse;
but, I wonder, did not he who made the peg of ascent make a peg
of descent also?' Now he was a man of wit and intelligence; so
he fell to examining all the parts of the horse, but saw
nothing save a peg, like a cock's head, on its right shoulder
and the like on the left, and turned the right-hand peg,
whereupon the horse flew upward with increased speed.
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