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O ye, one thought of whom clings round me like a cloak, Whose love it as a shirt about my body dight,
O my belovéd ones, how long will ye delay? How long must I endure estrangement and despite?
Then she wept and cried out and her son did the like, when in came the Vizier, whose heart burned within him at the sight of their weeping, and he said, “Why do ye weep?” The Lady of Beauty told him what had happened to Agib, and the Vizier also wept and called to mind his brother and all that had passed between them and what had befallen his daughter, and knew not the secret of the matter. Then he rose at once and going to the Divan, related the matter to the Sultan and begged his leave to travel eastward to the city of Bassora and enquire for his nephew. Moreover, he besought him for letters-patent, authorizing him to take Bedreddin, wherever he should find him. And he wept before the King, who took pity on him and wrote him royal letters-patent to his deputies in all his provinces; whereat the Vizier rejoiced and called down blessings on him. Then taking leave of him, he returned to his house, where he equipped himself and his daughter and grandson for the journey, and set out and travelled till he came to the city of Damascus and found it rich in trees and waters, even as says the poet:
I mind me a night and a day spent in Damascus town, (Time swore ’twould ne’er again their like to man outmete).
We lay in its languorous glades, where the careless calm of the night And the morn, with its smiling eyes and its twy-coloured tresses, meet.
The dew to its branches clings like a glittering chain of pearl, Whose jewels the zephyr smites and scatters beneath his feet.
The birds on the branches chant from the open book of the lake; The breezes write on the scroll and the clouds mark the points, as they fleet.
The Vizier alighted without the city and pitched his tents in an open space called the Plain of Pebbles, saying to his servants, “We will rest here two days.” So they went
