The rest of the week thou shalt pass with thy son
Kemerezzeman, and thus do till God vouchsafe you both relief.
Think not, O King, that thou art exempt from the shifts of
fortune and the strokes of calamity; for the wise man is still on
his guard, as well saith the poet:
Thou madest fair thy thought of Fate, whenas the days were fair,
And fearedst not the unknown ills that they to thee might
bring.
The nights were fair and calm to thee; thou wast deceived by
them, For in the peace of night is born full many a
troublous thing.
O all ye children of mankind, to whom the Fates are kind, Let
caution ever have a part in all your reckoning.'
The King was struck with the Vizier's words and deemed his
counsel wise and timely, fearing lest the order of the state be
deranged; so he rose at once and bade carry his son to the
pavilion in question, which was built (upon a rock) midmost the
water and was approached by a causeway, twenty cubits wide. It
had windows on all sides, overlooking the sea; its floor was of
variegated marble and its roof was painted in the richest colours
and decorated with gold and lapis-lazuli. They furnished it for
Kemerezzeman with embroidered rugs and carpets of the richest
silk and hung the walls with choice brocades and curtains
bespangled with jewels.
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