Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/168

146 diamonds and emeralds and balass rubies and so forth; whereupon I threw away the goldsmiths’ ware and took as many jewels as I could carry, regretting that my brothers were not with me, so they might take what they would thereof.

Then I left the jewel market and went on till I came to a great door, gilded and decorated after the fairest fashion, within which were benches and in the porch sat eunuchs and guards and horsemen and footmen and officers of police, all clad in the richest of raiment; but they were all stones. I touched one of them and his clothes crumbled away from his body like cobwebs. Then I entered and saw a palace without equal for its building and the goodliness of its ordinance and of the curious works that were therein. Here I found an audience-chamber, full of grandees and viziers and officers and amirs, seated upon chairs and every one of them stone. Moreover, I saw a throne of red gold, inlaid with pearls and jewels, and seated thereon a man arrayed in the most sumptuous raiment and bearing on his head an imperial crown, set with precious stones, that shed a light like the light of the day; but, when I came up to him, I found him stone.

Then I went on to the gate of the harem and entering, found myself in the queen’s presence-chamber, wherein I saw a throne of red gold, inlaid with pearls and jewels, and the queen seated thereon. On her head she wore a crown diademed with precious jewels, and round about her were women like moons, seated upon chairs and clad in the most sumptuous raiment of all colours. There also stood eunuchs, with their hands upon their breasts, in the attitude of service, and indeed this hall confounded the beholder’s wits with what was therein of