ve found that whereof we were in search." And
the prince answered him, saying, "Thou art in the right." So Mubarek
arose and fell to equipping them for the journey; moreover, he let make
the young lady a camel-litter [127] with a travelling couch, [128] and
they set out. But Mubarek knew that Zein ul Asnam was sunken deep in
love of the damsel; so he took him and said to him, "O my lord Zein ul
Asnam, I would fain remind thee to watch over thyself; nay, again I say,
have a care and keep the faith which thou plightedst to the King of the
Jinn." "O Mubarek," answered the prince, "an thou knewest the transport
which possesseth me for the love of this young lady [129] and how I
still think of nothing but of taking her to Bassora and going in [to
her]!" And Mubarek said to him, "Nay, O my lord; keep thy troth and play
not the traitor to thine oath, lest there befall thee a sore calamity
and thou lose thy life and the young lady lose hers also. Bethink thee
of the oath which thou sworest and let not lust get the mastery over
thine understanding, lest thou lose guerdan [130] and honour and life."
"O Mubarek," rejoined Zein ul Asnam, "keep thou watch over her thyself
and let me not see her." So [131] Mubarek fell to keeping watch and ward
over the bride in the prince's stead and guarded the latter also, lest
he should look on her; and so they journeyed on past the road leading
unto Egypt and fared on their way to the Island of the Jinn.

When the bride beheld the journey (and indeed it was long upon her) and
saw not her husband in all this time since the night of the bridal, she
turned to Mubarek and said to him, "God upon thee, O Mubarek, tell me,
I conjure thee by the life of thy lord the Amir, are we yet far from the
dominions [132] of my bridegroom, the Amir Zein ul Asnam?" And he said
to her, "Alack, O my lady, it irketh me for thee and I will discover to
thee that which is hidden. To wit, thou deemest that Zein ul Asnam,
King of Bassora, is thy bridegroom. Far be it! [133] He is not thy
bridegroom. The writing of the writ of his marriage with thee [134] was
but a pretext before thy parents and the folk; and now thou art going
for a bride to the King of the Jinn, who sought thee from the Amir Zein
ul Asnam." When the young lady heard these words, she fell a-weeping and
Zein ul Asnam heard her and fell a-weeping also, a sore weeping, of the
excess of his love for her. And she said to them, "Is there no pity
in you and no cle