Arab Al-’Áriz = the demon who possessed her.
_i.e._ He hath renounced his infamous traffic.
Alluding to the favourite Eastern saying, “The poor man hath no life.”
In this and the following lines some change is necessary for the Bresl. and Mac. texts are very defective. The Arabic word here translated “recess” is “Aywán,” prop. a hall, an open saloon.
_i.e._ by selling it for thirty thousand gold pieces, when he might have got a million for it.
Al-Khasíb,[299] Wazir of Egypt, had a son named Ibrahím, than whom there was none goodlier, and of his fear for him, he suffered him not to go forth, save to the Friday prayers. One day, as the youth was returning from the mosque, he came upon an old man, with whom were many books; so he lighted down from his horse and seating himself beside him, began to turn over the tomes and examine them. In one of them he espied the semblance of a woman which all but spoke, never was seen on the earth’s face one more beautiful; and as this captivated his reason and confounded his wit, he said to the old man, “O Shaykh, sell me this picture.” The bookseller kissed ground between his hands and said, “O my lord, ’tis thine without price.[300]” Ibrahim gave him an hundred dinars and taking the book in which was the picture, fell to gazing upon it and weeping night and day, abstaining from meat and drink and sleep. Then said he in his mind, “An I ask the bookseller of the painter of this picture, haply he will tell me; and if the original be living, I will seek access to her; but, if it be only a picture, I will leave doting upon it and plague myself no more for a thing which hath no real existence.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Fifty-third Night,