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He wished to take him alive, in order to lead him through the country a prisoner, and exhibit him to his former subjects as a trophy of his victory, just as he had done and was still doing with the old queen Khatun, his grandmother. But Jalaloddin was determined that his conqueror should not enjoy this pleasure. He resolved to attempt to save himself by swimming the river.
Quoth Daulat Khatun, "The Jinni cometh; slay the sparrow, lest this accursed enter the palace and take it from thee and slaughter me and slaughter thee after me." So the Prince wrung the sparrow's neck and it died, whereupon the Jinni fell down at the palace-door and became a heap of black ashes.
Thereupon the maid accosted her and kissing her hand, carried her up to her mistress. She found the lady as she were a treasure, whose guardian talisman had been loosed; and Khatun bade her welcome and kissed her hand. Quoth she, "O my daughter, I come not to thee save for thy weal and by Allah's will."
With all this, however, she was very strict and severe, and, as has almost always been the case with women raised to the possession of irresponsible power, she was unrelenting and cruel in the extreme whenever, as she judged, any political necessity required her to act with decision. Khatun was not now at Samarcand. She was at Karazm, a city which was the chief residence of the court.
Quoth Khatun, "I will go with thee to visit him, O my mother!" But Dalilah said to herself, "Where shall I strip her and take her clothes and jewellery, with the folk coming and going?" He saw the lady approaching and fell to casting stolen glances at her, which when the old woman saw, she beckoned to her and said, "Sit down in this shop, till I return to thee."
Jalaloddin was the oldest, and was therefore naturally entitled to be his father's successor; but, for some reason or other, the queen-mother, Khatun, had taken a dislike to him, and had persuaded her son, the sultan, to execute a sort of act or deed by which Jalaloddin was displaced, and Kothboddin, who was a great favorite of hers, was made heir to the throne in his place.
So when the old woman came into the Lady Khatun, she found her bound with the fillets of mourning and said to her, "Wherefore dost thou mourn?" She replied, "For my son Habzalam Bazazah;" and the old woman exclaimed, "Heaven assain thy son!; what hath befallen him?" So the mother told her the whole story, and she said, "What thou say of him who should achieve such a feat as would save thy son?"
So he tookt he stick and made for Sayf al-Muluk, but, when he came to the raft, he saw a something, wondrous, beauteous, which confounded his wits and considering it straitly he made sure that it was Daulat Khatun sitting there, as she were a slice of the moon; whereat he said to the Prince, "Who is that with thee?" Replied he, "A damsel by name Daulat Khatun."
When the latter was introduced, he spoke thus: 'Thy wife, Burte Judjin Khatun, thy princely children, the elders and princes of thy kingdom, all are well.
Then the old woman went out with the young lady Khatun, saying to her, "Inshallah, O my daughter, when thou hast visited the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat, there shall betide thee solace of soul and by leave of Almighty Allah thou shalt conceive, and thy husband the Emir shall love thee by the blessing of the Shaykh and shall never again let thee hear a despiteful word."
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