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with his head between his knees, and he lamenting. So she sat down by him awhile and bespoke him with soft words and said to him, ‘Indeed, O my son, thou consumest mine entrails, for that these [many] days thou hast not mounted to horse, and thou lamentest and I know not what aileth thee.’ ‘O my mother,’ answered he, ‘[this my chagrin] is due to yonder accursed woman, of whom I still deemed well and who hath done thus and thus.’ Then he related to her the whole story from first to last, and she said to him, ‘This thy concern is on account of a worthless woman.’ Quoth he, ‘I was but considering by what death I should slay them, so the folk may [be admonished by their fate and] repent.’ And she said, ‘O my son, beware of haste, for it engendereth repentance and the slaying of them will not escape [thee]. When thou art assured of this affair, do what thou wilt.’ ‘O my mother,’ rejoined he; ‘there needeth no assurance concerning him for whom she despatched her eunuch and he fetched him.’
But she said, ‘There is a thing wherewith we will make her confess, and all that is in her heart shall be discovered to thee.’ ‘What is that?’ asked the king, and she answered, ‘I will bring thee a hoopoe’s heart,[1] which, when she sleepeth, do thou lay upon her heart and question her of all thou wilt, and she will discover this unto thee and show forth the truth to thee.” The king rejoiced
- ↑ The hoopoe is fabled by the Muslim chroniclers to have been to Solomon what Odin’s ravens were to the Norse god. It is said to have known all the secrets of the earth and to have revealed them to him; hence the magical virtues attributed by the Mohammedans to its heart.
