Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/81

 the Wazir Ibrahim and kissed his hands. The Minister entered and found in the courtyard, among the serving-men, a Fakir, which was Uns al-Wujud, but he knew him not and said, "Whence cometh yonder wight?" Quoth they, "He is a merchant, who hath lost his goods, but saved himself; and he is an ecstatic." [FN#74] So the Wazir left him and went on into the castle, where he found no trace of his daughter and questioned her women, who answered, "We wot not how or whither she went; this place misliked her and she tarried in it but a short time." Whereupon he wept sore and repeated these couplets,

"Ho thou, the house, whose birds were singing gay, *         Whose sills their wealth and pride were wont display!     Till came the lover wailing for his love, *         And found thy doors wide open to the way;     Would Heaven I knew where is my soul that erst *         Was homed in house, whose owners fared away!     'Twas stored with all things bright and beautiful, *         And showed its porters ranged in fair array:    They clothed it with brocades a bride become; [FN#75] *         Would I knew whither went its lords, ah, say!"

After ending his verses he again shed tears, and groaned and bemoaned himself, exclaiming, "There is no deliverance from the destiny decreed by Allah; nor is there any escape from that which He hath predestined!" Then he went up to the roof and found the strips of Ba'albak stuff tied to the crenelles and hanging down to the ground, and thus it was he knew that she had descended