Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/109



OF THE ADVANTAGES OF PATIENCE.

When it was the third day, the third vizier came in to the king and said to him, “O king, delay not the affair of this youth, for that his deed hath caused us fall into the mouths of the folk, and it behoveth that thou slay him presently, so the talk may be estopped from us and it be not said, ‘The king saw on his bed a man with his wife and spared him.’” The king was chagrined by this speech and bade bring the youth. So they brought him in shackles, and indeed the king’s anger was roused against him by the speech of the vizier and he was troubled; so he said to him, “O base of origin, thou hast dishonoured us and marred our repute, and needs must I do away thy life from the world.” Quoth the youth, “O king, make use of patience in all thine affairs, so wilt thou attain thy desire, for that God the Most High hath appointed the issue of patience [to be] in abounding good, and indeed by patience Abou Sabir ascended from the pit and sat down upon the throne.” “Who was Abou Sabir,” asked the king, “and what is his story?” And the youth answered, saying, “O king,