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Though all you have done I have well deserved, * I take refuge with you, so exult not o'er me: True, I am weak and low and vile, * But I'll bear your will and whatso you bore me: My death at your hands what brings it of glory? * I fear but your sin which of life forlore me!" Quoth the Caliph, "By Allah, good! O Ja'afar, never in my life have I heard a voice so enchanting as this."
Now Mahbubah had written upon her cheek, in musk, the Caliph's name, which was Ja'afar: and when he saw this, he improvised the following, "One wrote upon her cheek with musk, his name was Ja'afar highs; * My soul for hers who wrote upon her cheek the name I sight!
And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night, She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ja'afar asked the man, "Whence comest thou?"; he answered "From Bassorah." Quoth Ja'afar, "And whither goest thou?" Quoth the other, "To Baghdad."
Knowest thou who I am? Quoth I, 'No, by Allah, O my lady!; and quoth she, 'I am the Lady Dunya, daughter of Yahya bin Khalid the Barmecide and sister of Ja'afar, Wazir to the Caliph. Now as I heard this, I drew back from her, saying, 'O my lady, it is no fault of mine if I have been over- bold with thee; it was thou didst encourage me to aspire to thy love, by giving me access to thee. She answered, 'No harm shall befal-thee, and needs must thou attain thy desire in the only way pleasing to Allah.
Then quoth the Caliph, "O Ja'afar, let us both mount the branch opposite the window, that we may amuse ourselves with looking at them." So the two climbed the tree and, peering in, heard Shaykh Ibrahim say, "O my lady, I have cast away all gravity mine by the drinking of wine, but 'tis not sweet save with the soft sounds of the lute-strings it combine."
Answered the broker, "It is the Wazir Ja'afar who is minded to buy her for Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." And Ala al-Din continued till he brought her price up to ten thousand dinars, and her owner was satisfied to sell her for that sum.
Quoth Ja'afar, "He who went out but now to make water is the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, and I am the Wazir Ja'afar; and this is Masrur the executioner and this other is Abu Nowas Hasan bin Hani.. And now, O Ala al-Din, use thy reason and bethink thee how many days' journey it is between Cairo and Baghdad."
So he resumed his service about the Caliph's person and set himself to sniff about for news of Ala al-Din's case, till one day he heard the Caliph say to the Watir, "See, O Ja'afar, how Ala al-Din dealt with me!" Replied the Minister, "O Commander of the Faithful, thou hast requited him with hanging and hath he not met with his reward?"
He was Abu Ja'afar the leper, in whose name folk at all times pray for rain and by whose blessing-prayers their end attain. When I heard their words, my desire for his company redoubled and I implored the Almighty to reunite me with him. At this sight I cried out with a loud cry and fell down in a fainting fit; but, when I came to myself he had disappeared from my sight.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph swore he would hang none but the slave, for the youth was excusable. Then he turned to Ja'afar and said to him, "Bring before me this accursed slave who was the sole cause of this calamity; and, if thou bring him not before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead." So Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying.
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