'
When the rejoicings were at an end, the people returned to
their houses and the King and his son to the palace, where they
sat down and fell to eating and drinking and making merry. Now
the King had a handsome slave-girl, who was skilled in playing
upon the lute; so she took it and began to play upon it and
sing thereto of separation of lovers before the King and his
son, and she chanted the following verses:
Think not that absence ever shall win me to forget: For what
should I remember, if I'd forgotten you?
Time passes, but my passion for you shall never end: In love of
you, I swear it, I'll die and rise anew.
When the prince heard this, the fires of longing flamed up in
his heart and passion redoubled upon him. Grief and regret were
sore upon him and his entrails yearned in him for love of the
King's daughter of Senaa; so he rose forthright and eluding his
father's notice, went forth the palace to the horse and
mounting it, turned the peg of ascent, whereupon it flew up
into the air with him and soared towards the confines of the
sky. Presently, his father missed him and going up to the
summit of the palace, in great concern, saw the prince rising
into the air; whereat he was sore afflicted and repented
exceedingly that he had not taken the horse and hidden it: and
he said in himself, 'By Allah, if but my son return to me, I
will destroy the horse, that my heart may be at rest concerning
my son.
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