rk was made of
sandalwood and wood of aloes. It contained a vast number of
nightingales, goldfinches, canary birds, larks, and other rare singing
birds, and the vessels that held their seed were of the most sparkling
jasper or agate. The sun went down, and I retired, charmed with the
chirping notes of the multitude of birds, who then began to perch upon
such places as suited them for repose during the night. I went to my
chamber, resolving on the following days to open all the rest of the
doors, excepting that of gold.

The next day I opened the fourth door. I entered a large court,
surrounded with forty gates, all open, and through each of them was an
entrance into a treasury. The first was stored with heaps of pearls;
and, what is almost incredible, the number of those stones which are
most precious, and as large as pigeon's eggs, exceeded the number of
those of the ordinary size. In the second treasury,[24] there were
diamonds, carbuncles, and rubies; in the third, emeralds; in the
fourth, ingots of gold; in the fifth, money; in the sixth, ingots of
silver; and in the two following, money. The rest contained amethysts,
chrysolites, topazes, opals, turquoises, agate, jasper, cornelian, and
coral, of which there was a storehouse filled, not only with branches,
but whole trees.

[Footnote 24: These tales were written shortly after the conquest of
Persia, the riches of which country may be reflected in these
narratives. "The naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched,
beyond the measure of their hope and knowledge. Each chamber revealed
a new chamber secreted with art, or ostentatiously displayed; the gold
and silver, the various wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed
(says Abulfeda) the estimate of fancy or numbers, and another
historian defines the untold and almost infinite mass by the fabulous
computation of thousands of thousands of pieces of gold."--Gibbon's
_Decline and Fall._]

Thus I went through, day by day, these various wonders. Thirty-nine
days afforded me but just as much time as was necessary to open
ninety-nine doors, and to admire all that presented itself to my view,
so that there was only the hundredth door left, which I was forbidden
to open.

The fortieth day after the departure of those charming princesses
arrived, and had I but retained so much self-command as I ought to
have had, I should have been this day the happiest of all mankind,
whereas now I am the most unfortunate. But