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thanks be to Allah, for that all this happened to me in sleep,

and not on wake." Sitt al-Husn laughed and clasped him to her

bosom and he her to his: then he thought again and said, "By

Allah, it could not be save while I was awake: truly I know not

what to think of it." Then he lay him down and all the night he

was bewildered about his case, now saying, "I was dreaming!" and

then saying, "I was awake!", till morning, when his uncle Shams

al-Din, the Wazir, came to him and saluted him. When Badr al-Din

Hasan saw him he said, "By Allah, art thou not he who bade bind

my hands behind me and smash my shop and nail me to a cross on a

matter of conserved pomegranate-grains because the dish lacked a

sufficiency of pepper?" Whereupon the Wazir said to him, "Know, O

my son, that truth hath shown it soothfast and the concealed hath

been revealed!