'How bore they themselves,' asked the King, 'and
did they give thee any charge?' 'I found them patient and
resigned to their fate,' answered the treasurer; 'and they said
to me, "Verily, our father is excusable; bear him our salutation
and say to him, 'Thou art quit of our blood;' and repeat to him
the following verses:
Women are very devils, made to work us dole and death; Refuge I
seek with God Most High from all their craft and scaith.
Prime source are they of all the ills that fall upon mankind,
Both in the fortunes of this world and matters of the
faith."'
When the King heard this, he bowed his head a long while and knew
this to mean that they had wrongfully been put to death. Then he
bethought himself of the perfidy of women and the calamities
brought about by them, and opening the two parcels fell to
turning over his sons' clothes and weeping. Presently, he found
in the pocket of his son Asaad's clothes a letter in Queen
Budour's hand, enclosing the tresses of her hair, and reading it,
knew that the prince had been falsely accused. Then he searched
Amjed's clothes and found in his pocket a letter in the
handwriting of Queen Heyat en Nufous, enclosing the tresses of
her hair; so he opened and read it and knew that Amjed also had
been wronged; whereupon he beat hand upon hand and exclaimed,
'There is no power and no virtue but in God! I have slain my
sons unjustly.
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