The princess, who had her face unveiled, no sooner came into the room than she put on her veil, and said to the sultan, “Sire, I am surprised that you have sent for me to appear before a man. That seeming ape is a young prince, son of a powerful sultan, and has been metamorphosed into an ape by enchantment. When I was just out of the nursery, an old lady who waited on me was a most expert magician, and taught me seventy rules of magic. By this science I know all enchanted persons at first sight: I know who they are, and by whom they have been enchanted; therefore do not be surprised if I should forthwith restore this prince, in spite of the enchantments, to his own form.” “Do so, then,” interrupted the sultan, “for you cannot give me greater pleasure, as I wish to have him for my grand vizier, and bestow you upon him for a wife.” “I am ready. Sire,” answered the princess, “to obey you in all things you please to command.”
The princess, the Lady of Beauty, went into her apartment, and brought thence a knife, which had some Hebrew words engraven on the blade: she made the sultan, a little slave, and myself, descend into a private court of the palace, and there left us under a gallery that went round it. She placed herself in the middle of the court, where she made a great circle, and within it she wrote several words in ancient Arabian characters.
When she had finished, she placed herself in the center of the circle, where she began incantations, and repeated verses
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