The Seventh Vizier, on the following day, approached the King, and having told him that his lenity towards Bakhtyār was made the subject of public conversation, added many arguments to procure an order for the execution of that unfortunate young man. The King, changing colour with anger, sent immediately for the Queen, and asked her advice concerning Bakhtyār. She declared that he deserved death; in consequence of which the King ordered his attendants to bring him from the prison. When he came into the royal presence, he begged for mercy, saying: “My innocence will appear hereafter; and though your Majesty can easily put to death a living man, you cannot restore a dead man to life.”—“How,” said the King, “can you deny your guilt, since the women of the harem all bear witness against you?”—Bakhtyār replied: “Women, for their own purposes, often devise falsehoods, and are very expert in artifice and fraud, as appears from the story of the daughter of the King of `Irāk and her adventures with the King of Abyssinia, which, if your Majesty permit, I shall briefly relate.”—Having obtained permission, he began the story as follows:
