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Therewithal Queen Es Shuhba rejoiced and all who were present rejoiced also and admired her speech and fell to kissing her; and when she had made an end of her song, Queen Kemeriyeh said to her, ‘O my sister, ere thou go to thy palace, I would fain bring thee to look upon El Anca, daughter of Behram Gour, whom El Anca, daughter of the wind, carried off, and her beauty; for that there is not her match on the face of the earth.’ And Queen Es Shuhba said, ‘O Kemeriyeh, I [also] have a mind to see her.’ Quoth Kemeriyeh, ‘I saw her three years agone; but my sister Wekhimeh seeth her at all times, for that she is near unto her, and she saith that there is not in the world a fairer than she. Indeed, this Queen El Anca is become a byword for loveliness and proverbs are made upon her beauty and grace.’ And Wekhimeh said, ‘By the mighty inscription [on the seal-ring of Solomon], there is not her like in the world!’ Then said Queen Es Shuhba, ‘If it needs must be and the affair is as ye say, I will take Tuhfeh and go with her [to El Anca], so she may see her.’

So they all arose and repaired to El Anca, who abode in the Mountain Caf. When she saw them, she rose to