Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/151

127 mother answered, ‘She hath had both her hands cut off.’ Said he, ‘Let me see her.’ So she brought her to him, and he was ravished by her and married her and went in to her; and she brought him a son.

Now this was the woman, who had her hands cut off for alms-giving; and when she became queen, her fellow-wives envied her and wrote to the King [who was then absent] that she was unchaste; so he wrote to his mother, bidding her carry the woman into the desert and leave her there. The old queen obeyed his commandment and abandoned the woman and her son in the desert; whereupon she fell to weeping and wailing exceeding sore for that which had befallen her. As she went along, with the child at her neck, she came to a river and knelt down to drink, being overcome with excess of thirst, for fatigue and grief; but, as she bent her head, the child fell into the water.

Then she sat weeping sore for her child, and as she wept, there came up two men, who said to her, ‘What makes thee weep?’ Quoth she, ‘I had a child at my neck, and he hath fallen into the water.’ ‘Wilt thou that we bring him out to thee?’ asked they, and she answered, ‘Yes.’ So they prayed to God the Most High, and the child came forth of the water to her, safe and sound. Quoth they, ‘Wilt thou that God restore thee thy hands as they were?’ ‘Yes,’ replied she: whereupon they prayed to God, blessed and exalted be He! and her hands were restored to her, goodlier than before. Then said they, ‘Knowst thou who we are?’ ‘God [only] is all-knowing,’ answered she; and they said, ‘We are thy two cakes of bread, that thou gavest in alms to the beggar and which were the cause of the cutting off of thy hands. So praise thou God the Most High, for that He hath restored thee thy hands and thy child.’ So she praised God the Most High and glorified Him.