Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/76

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unpeered in grace and goodliness and all of them daughters of men of condition.” But, O King of the time,[1] the old woman had no knowledge of the affair of the mirror.

Then she arose and went out to go round about in the city and to run along its ways,[2] seeking[3] the girl for Prince Zein ul Asnam, and whenassoever she saw a fair damsel, accomplished in beauty, she proceeded to bring her to Mubarek; but, when he looked at her in the mirror, he would see her image troubled exceedingly and would leave her; so that the old woman brought him all the damsels of Cairo, but there was not found among them one whose image in the mirror was clear; wherefore he bethought him to go to Baghdad, since he found not one in Cairo who pleased him [or] who was a clean maid, like as the King of the Jinn had enjoined him. So he arose and equipping himself, [set out and] journeyed, he and Zein ul Asnam, till they came to the city of Baghdad, where they hired them a magnificent palace amiddleward the city and

  1. Quoth Shehrzad to Shehriyar.
  2. Syn. “to work upon her traces or courses” (tesaa ala menakibiha).
  3. Night DVII.