The False Vezir

A king had a wife who said to him: "I would like to go and visit my
father."

"Very well," said he; "wait to-day, and to-morrow thou shalt go with my
vezir." The next day they set out, taking the children with them, and an
escort lest they should be attacked on the way. They stopped at sunset, and
passed the night on the road. The vezir said to the guards, "Watch that we
be not taken, if the robbers should come to seize us." They guarded the
tent. The vezir asked the King's wife to marry him, and killed one of her
sons because she refused. The next day they set out again. The next night
he again asked the King's wife to marry him, threatening to kill a second
child should she refuse. She did refuse, so he killed the second son. The
next morning they set out, and when they stopped at night again he asked
the King's wife to marry him.

"I'll kill you if you refuse."

She asked for delay, time to say her prayers. She prayed to God, the Master
of all worlds, and said: "O God, save me from the vezir." The Master of the
worlds heard her prayer. He gave her the wings of a bird, and she flew up
in the sky.

At dawn she alighted in a great city, and met a man upon the roadside. She
said: "By the face of God, give me your raiment and I'll give thee mine."

"Take it, and may God honor you," he said. Then she was handsome. This city
had no king. The members of the council said:

"This creature is handsome; we'll make him our king." The cannon spoke in
his honor and the drums beat.

When she flew up into the sky, the vezir said to the guards: "You will be
my witnesses that she has gone to the sky, so that when I shall see the
King he cannot say, 'Where is she?'" But when the vezir told this story,
the King said:

"I shall go to seek my wife. Thou hast lied. Thou shalt accompany me." They
set out, and went from village to village. They inquired, and said: "Has a
woman been found here recently? We have lost her." And the village people
said, "We have not found her." They went then to another village and
inquired. At this village the Sultan's wife recognized them, called her
servant, and said to him, "Go, bring to me this man." She said to the King,
"From what motive hast thou come hither?"

He said, "I have lost my wife."

She answered: "Stay here, and pass the night. We will give thee a dinner
and will question thee."

When the sun had set she said to the servant, "Go, bring the dinner, that
the guests may eat." When they had eaten she said to the King, "Tell me
your story."

He answered: "My story is long. My wife went away in the company of a
trusted vezir. He returned and said: 'By God, your wife has gone to
heaven.'

"I replied: 'No, you have lied. I'll go and look for her.'"

She said to him, "I am your wife."

"How came you here?" he asked.

She replied: "After having started, your vezir came to me and asked me to
marry him or he would kill my son, 'Kill him,' I said, and he killed them
both."

Addressing the vezir, she said: "And your story? Let us hear it."

"I will return in a moment," said the vezir, for he feared her. But the
King cut off his head.

The next day he assembled the council of the village, and his wife said,
"Forgive me and let me go, for I am a woman."