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The princess on finishing said to him, "Sir, though women do not easily comply with the liberty assumed by men to have several wives; yet if your majesty will consent to give your daughter the princess Haiatalnefous in marriage to the prince, I will with all my heart yield up to her the rank and quality of queen, which of right belongs to her, and content myself with the second place.
The princess Badoura consulted the princess Haiatalnefous in this, as she had done in the other parts of the adventure; and both agreeing to have it done, she one day took prince Camaralzaman aside, saying, I must talk with you about an affair, Camaralzaman, in which I want your advice: it will not be so proper to do it by day-light, for our discourse may be long, and I would not be observed.
She then left off, and lay down softly by the new queen, without waking her, and was as much afflicted at being forced to act a part which did not belong to her, as in the loss of her dear Kummir al Zummaun, for whom she: ceased not to sigh. She rose as soon as it was day, before Haiatalnefous was awake; and, being dressed in her royal robes as king, went to council.
Having done this, he ran in haste to the princess Badoura his mother, bearing his resentment still in his looks, and showing her the billet, told her the contents of it, and from whom it came; but, instead of hearkening to him, she fell into a passion, and said, Son, it is all a calumny and imposture: Queen Haiatalnefous is a very discreet princess, and you are very bold to talk after this rate.
The only way to justify her conduct was to communicate her sex to the princess Haiatalnefous.
They sat down, and the princess told the prince the resolution she came to, in the field where they encamped the last time they were together, as soon as she perceived that she waited for him to no purpose; how she went through with it till she arrived at the Isle of Ebony, where she had been obliged to marry the Princess Haiatalnefous, and accept the crown which King Armanos offered her as a condition of the marriage: how the princess, whose merit she highly extolled, had kept the secret, and how she found the talisman in the pots of olives mingled with the gold dust, and how the finding it was the cause of her sending for him to the city of the idolaters.
"Sir," replied Kummir al Zummaun, "though I desire nothing so earnestly as to see the king my father, yet the obligations I have to your majesty and the princess Haiatalnefous are so weighty, I can refuse her nothing."
"Princess," said she to Haiatalnefous, as soon as they were gone, "you who have heard my story, doubtless, guessed it was at the sight of the talisman that I fainted. This is that talisman, and the fatal cause of my dosing my husband; but as it was that which caused our separation, so I foresee it will be the means of our meeting."
The two princes being equally handsome, both in infancy and when they were grown up, the two queens loved them with incredible tenderness; in such a manner, however, that the princess Badoura had a greater kindness for prince Assad, queen Haiatalnefous' son, than her own; and queen Haiatalnefous loved Amgrad, princess Badoura's son, better than her own son Assad.
She talked to her as she had done the night before, and after the same manner went to her devotions, desiring the queen to go to bed. But Haiatalnefous would not be so served; she held her back, and obliged her to sit down.
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