Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/120

Rh they had chosen oppressed them; and in his tyranny he took the wives of his subjects, and brought them into his harîm, and made them his wives. And then the people wished to take from him the kingdom, but they could not. And Balkîs saw his tyranny. So she wrote a letter to him offering him marriage. And he consented, and said, "Verily of a long while have I desired this thing, but I feared to ask it lest thou shouldst refuse me." So they were married. But the same night she made him drunk with wine, and when he was unconscious she cut off his head, and returned to her own house. And when day dawned the people found the King killed, and his head hanging before the door of the palace of Balkîs. So they understood that she had offered him marriage through craft, and in order to compass his death. And they all assembled before her and said, "The whole kingdom is thine of right." So she became Queen of the entire country of el-Yémen.)

And the Hud-hud continued: "And she has great possessions, and a bed whereof the length is eighty yards, and the breadth forty yards, and the height thirty yards. And it is formed entirely of gold and silver, encrusted with jewels: and it is placed within