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my mother and the king my brother are pleased to honour you with;
they earnestly desire to see you, and tell you so themselves: I
intended to have had some conversation with them by ordering a
banquet for them, before I introduced them to your majesty; but
they are impatient to pay their respects to you; and therefore I
beseech your majesty to be pleased to honour them with your
presence."

"Madam," said the king of Persia, "I should be glad to salute
persons who have the honour to be so nearly related to you, but I
am afraid of the flames they breathe at their mouths and
nostrils." "Sir," replied the queen laughing, "you need not in
the least fear those flames, which are nothing but a sign of
their unwillingness to eat in your palace, without your honouring
them with your presence, and eating with them."

The king of Persia, encouraged by these words, rose and went into
the apartment with his Queen Gulnare She presented him to the
queen her mother, to the king her brother, and to her other
relations; who instantly threw themselves at his feet, with their
faces to the ground. The king of Persia ran to them, and lifting
them up, embraced them one after another. After they were all
seated, King Saleh began: "Sir;" said he to the king of Persia,
"we are at a loss for words to express our joy, to think that the
queen my sister, in her disgrace, should have the happiness of
falling under the protection of so powerful a monarch. We can
assure you, she is not unworthy of the high rank to which you
have been pleased to raise her; and we have always had so much
love and tenderness for her, that we could never think or parting
with her to any of the puissant princes of the sea, who have
often demanded her in marriage before she came of age. Heaven has
reserved her for you, and we have no better way of testifying our
gratitude for the favour it has done her, than beseeching it to
grant your majesty a long and happy life with her, and to crown
you with prosperity and satisfaction.

"Certainly," replied the king of Persia, "heaven reserved her for
me, as you observe. I love her with so tender and ardent a
passion, that I am satisfied I never loved any woman till I saw
her. I cannot sufficiently thank either the queen her mother or
you, prince, or your whole family, for the generosity with which
you have consented to receive me into an alliance so glorious to
me as yours." So saying he invited them to take part of the
coll