Page:The book of wonder voyages (1919).djvu/159

 explore the palace until he came to a pavilion built of gold and silver bricks, jacinth, and emerald, and supported by four columns. In the center thereof was a sitting-room, paved and lined with a mosaic of all manner of precious stones, rubies, emeralds, balasses, and other sorts of jewels; and in the midst was a basin brimful of water, canopied by a trelliswork of sandalwood and aloes wood, interwreathed with red, gold, and emerald wands set with various kinds of jewels and fine pearls as large as a pigeon's egg. The trellis was covered with a climbing vine bearing grapes like rubies, and beside the basin was a throne of lign-aloes latticed with red gold, inlaid with great pearls, many colored gems of every sort and precious minerals. About it the birds sang sweetly, and many voices sang to the glory of Allah, the Most High; in short, it was a palace the like of which nor Caesar nor Chosroes ever owned. And Hasan marveled and said to himself: "I wonder to which of the Kings this palace belongeth, or is it Many-Columned Iram whereof they tell, for who among mortals can pretend to the like of this?"

And as Hasan sat and wondered at the beauties of the scene around him, he espied ten birds flying towards the basin that was in the pavilion, and amongst them was one, a marvel of beauty, to whom the nine seemed to do service. As he gazed they entered the pavilion and perched on the couch, after which each bird opened its neck skin, and lo! it proved to be but a feather garment from which issued ten maidens, whose beauty shamed