To return to Kemerezzeman. When the night came on, the eunuch
set the lantern before him and lighting a candle, placed it in
the candlestick; then brought him food. The prince ate a little
and reproached himself for his ill-behaviour to his father,
saying to himself, 'O my soul, knowst thou not that a son of Adam
is the hostage of his tongue and that a man's tongue is what
casts him into perils?' Then his eyes ran over with tears and he
bewailed that which he had done, from an anguished heart and an
aching bosom, repenting him with an exceeding repentance of the
wrong he had done his father repeating the following verses:
For the sheer stumble of his tongue the youth must death aby,
Though for the stumble of his foot the grown man shall not
die.
Thus doth the slipping of his mouth smite off his head, I ween,
What while the slipping of his foot is healed, as time goes
by.
When he had made an end of eating, he called the eunuch, who
washed his hands. Then he made his ablutions and prayed the
prayers of sundown and nightfall, after which he sat down on the
couch, to read[FN#23] the Koran. He read the chapters called
'The Cow,' 'The family of Imran,' 'Ya-Sin,' 'The Compassionate,'
'Blessed be the King,' 'Unity' and 'The two Amulets,' and
concluded with blessing and supplication, seeking refuge with God
from Satan the accursed.
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