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Anonymous
Published by Good Press, 2019
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There 21 was [once] in the city of Bassora a mighty Sultan and he was exceeding rich, but he had no child who should be his successor 22 after him. For this he grieved sore and fell to bestowing alms galore upon the poor and the needy and upon the friends 23 of God and the devout, seeking their intercession with God the Most High, so He to whom belong might and majesty should of His favour vouchsafe him a son. And God accepted his prayer, for his fostering of the poor, and answered his petition; so that one night of the nights he lay with the queen and she went from him with child. When the Sultan knew this, he rejoiced with an exceeding joy, and as the time of her child-bearing drew nigh, he assembled all the astrologers and those who smote the sand 24 and said to them, "It is my will that ye enquire concerning the child that shall be born to me this month, whether it will be male or female, and tell me what will betide it of chances and what will proceed from it." 25 So the geomancers smote their [tables of] sand and the astrologers took their altitudes 26 and observed the star of the babe [un]born and said to the Sultan, "O King of the age and lord of the time and the tide, the child that shall be born to thee of the queen is a male and it beseemeth that thou name him Zein ul Asnam." 27 And as for those who smote upon the sand, they said to him, "Know, O King, that this babe will become a renowned brave, 28 but he shall happen in his time upon certain travail and tribulation; yet, an he endure with fortitude against that which shall befall him, he shall become the richest of the kings of the world." And the King said to them, "Since the babe shall become valiant as ye avouch, the toil and travail which will befall him are nought, for that tribulations teach the sons of kings."
Accordingly, after a few days, the queen gave birth to a male child,
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