I have won my wish and my need have scored ✿ Unto Thee be the praise and the thanks, O our Lord! I grew up dejected and abject; poor, ✿ But Allah vouchsafed me all boons implored: I have conquered countries and mastered men ✿ But for Thee were I naught, O thou Lord adored!
When Ra’ad Shah saw how evilly Ajib fared with his brother, he called for his charger and donning his harness and habergeon, mounted and dashed out a-field. As soon as he drew near King Gharib, he cried out at him, saying, “O basest of Arabs and bearer of scrubs,[55] who art thou, that thou shouldest capture Kings and braves? Down from thy horse and put elbows behind back and kiss my feet and set my warriors free and go with me in bond of chains to my reign that I may pardon thee and make thee a Shaykh in our own land, so mayst thou eat there a bittock of bread.” When Gharib heard these words he laughed till he fell backwards and answered, saying, “O mad hound and mangy wolf, soon shalt thou see against whom the shifts of Fortune will turn!” Then he cried out to Sahim, saying, “Bring me the prisoners;” so he brought them, and Gharib smote off their heads; whereupon Ra’ad Shah drave at him, with the driving of a lordly champion and the onslaught of a fierce slaughterer and they falsed and feinted and fought till nightfall, when the kettle-drums beat the retreat.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Sixty-third Night,