e King arose and going in with Alaeddin to the pavilion, saw the
Maugrabin [Iying ]: whereupon he bade forthright take the carcase and
burn it and scatter its ashes [to the winds]. Then he embraced Alaeddin
and fell to kissing him and said to him, "Excuse me, O my son, for that
I was going [623] to bereave thee of thy life, through the wickedness of
yonder accursed sorcerer who cast thee into this pit; and indeed, O my
son, I was excusable in that which I did with thee, inasmuch as I saw
myself bereft of my daughter and mine only one, who is dearer to me
than my kingdom, and thou knowest how fathers' hearts yearn upon their
children, more by token that I have but the Lady Bedrulbudour." And he
went on to excuse himself to him and kiss him; and [624] Alaeddin said
to him, "O Lord of the Age, thou didst with me nothing contrary to the
law and I also was guiltless of offence; but the thing came all of that
vile Maugrabin enchanter." Then the Sultan bade decorate the city and
hold festival and rejoicings and commanded the crier to cry in the
city that that day was a great festival, wherefore rejoicings should be
holden in all the realm during the space of a month, [to wit,] thirty
days' time, for the return of the Lady Bedrulbudour his daughter and her
husband Alaeddin.

This, then, is what befell Alaeddin with the Maugrabin; but Alaeddin,
for all this, was not altogether [625] quit of the accursed enchanter,
withal his body had been burned and given to the winds; for that the
accursed one had a brother viler than he [and yet more skilled] in magic
and geomancy and astrology; [nay, they were even] as saith the proverb,
"A bean and it was cloven in twain;" [626] and each dwelt in one quarter
of the world, so they might fill it [627] with their sorcery and craft
and guile. It chanced one day that the Maugrabin's brother was minded to
know how it was with his brother; so he fetched his sand-board and smote
it and extracted its figures; then he considered them and examining them
throughly, found his brother in the house of the tomb; [628] whereat
he mourned and was certified that he was indeed dead. Then he smote the
sand a second time, so he might learn how and where he died, and found
that he had died in the land of China and by the foulest of deaths and
knew that he who slew him was a youth by name Alaeddin. So he rose at
once and equipping himself for travel, set out and traversed plains and
deserts and mountains months and