Then the king of the genii delivered to him a looking-glass, saying, My son, you may return when you please: there is the glass you are to make use of. Zeyn and Morabec took leave of the king of the genii, and went towards the lake. The waterman with the elephant’s head brought his boat, and carried them over the lake as he had done before. They joined their servants, and returned with them again to Cairo.
Prince Alasnam rested a few days at Morabec’s house, and then said to him, Let us go to Bagdad, to seek a maiden for the king of the genii. Why, are we not at Grand Cairo? said Morabec: shall we not there find beautiful maidens enough? You are in the right, answered the prince; but how shall we do to find where they are? Do not trouble yourself about that, sir, answered Morabec; I know a very cunning old woman, whom I will intrust with that affair, and she will acquit herself well of it.
Accordingly the old woman found means to show the prince a considerable number of beautiful maidens of fifteen years of age; but when he had viewed them, and came to consult his looking-glass, the fatal touchstone of their virtue, the glass always appeared sullied. All the maidens in the court and city, that were in their fifteenth year, underwent the trial one after another, and the glass never remained bright and clear.
When they saw there were no chaste maids to be found in Cairo, they went away to Bagdad, where they hired a magnificent palace in one of the chief corners of the city, and began to live splendidly. They kept open house; and, after all people had eaten in the palace, the fragments were carried to the dervises, who, by that means, had convenient subsistence.
There lived in that quarter an iman, whose name was Boubekir Mouesm, a vain, haughty, and envious person: he hated the rich, only because he was poor, his misery incensing him against his neighbour’s prosperity. He heard talk of Zeyn Alasnam, and of the plenty his house afforded. This was enough for him to take an aversion to that prince; and it proceeded so far, that one day, after the evening prayer, in the mosque, he said to the people, Brethren, I have been told a stranger is come to live in our ward, who is at a prodigious expense every day. How can we tell but that this unknown person is some villain, who has committed a great robbery in his own country, and comes hither to make much of himself? Let us take heed, brethren; if the caliph should happen to be informed that such a man is in our ward, it is to be feared that he will punish us for not acquainting him with it: I declare, for my part, I wash my hands of it; and if any thing should happen amiss, it shall not lie at my door. The multitude, who were easily led away, unanimously cried to Boubekir, It is your business, doctor; do you acquaint the council with it. The iman went home well pleased, and drew up a memorial, resolving to present it to the caliph the next day.