The young man began his story - "I am the son of King Mahamood, the King of this country - the Kingdom of Black Isles which takes its name from the four little neighboring mountains, because these mountains were islands before. Our capital was where the pond now is. My father died at the age of 70 and I succeeded him.  Soon after I was married to my cousin. This relationship lasted for five years and then I felt that she was not interested in me.

One day I wanted to sleep, so I lay down on the bed and and closed my eyes. Two of her women came, one sat at my head and the other sat at my feet, and started fanning me. They thought that I was asleep so they started talking in a very low voice, but since I was not asleep, I heard their whole conversation. One said - "Is not the Queen wrong not to love such an amiable person like this Prince?" The second said - "Yes, But doesn't the Prince know this?" The first one said - "Oh, How to make him know this? The poor Prince doesn't know that every evening she mixes a kind of herb in his drink and because of that drink he sleeps so sound that she can go anywhere she likes and she wakes him by making him smell something."

You can imagine, Sir, how much I was surprised to hear this. Although I was in my senses and tried to keep myself awake still I pretended as if I had not heard anything. The Queen came and gave me the drink which I used to drink every evening, but this time I did not drink it. I got up, went towards a window and threw that drink out of the window in such a way that she could not notice it. I returned the cup to her and lay down on my bed. When she had made sure that I had slept, she rose saying "Sleep, and may you never wake up again," so loudly that I heard it very clearly.

As soon as she had gone, I also got up and followed her with a small dagger in my hand. I soon caught him in front of me. She passed through several gates opening them by some magical words and the last one was that of the garden. I stopped here lest somebody sees me. I followed her by my eyes as far as I could see, then I took another path and caught up to her. She was walking with a man. I heard her say - "You just have to command me. You know my power. I can, if you desire, before the sunrise, change this great city and this fine palace in frightful ruins which shall be inhabited only by wild animals."

Here the Queen and that man took a turn and passed in front of me. I just took out my dagger, struck it on his neck. He fell down on the ground. I thought I had killed him so I ran away from there very fast without making myself known to the Queen. I did not kill the Queen because she was my cousin. She revived him by her magic in such a way that he was neither dead nor alive. But my Queen was crying for him. I came home, slept as before and when I woke up in the morning, the Queen was there too.

I got up naturally, did all my day's work as usual and when I came home, she was standing clad in mourning dress. She said - "Sir, I beg you, not to be surprised seeing me in this dress. I have just heard three bad news." "And what are those three bad news?" She said - "The death of my dear mother, my father is also killed in battle, and one of my brothers who fell from from a cliff." I knew that she made up these news to hide the real cause of her grief, but I said - "I am also very sorry to hear this. How you will tolerate such bad news? I hope time will lessen your grief."

She mourned for one year and then she begged me to give her a place for burying and remain there till the end of her days. I agreed, and she built a stately palace which she called the Palace of Tears. She brought that man there to whom she gave the drink to save him from dying. She daily gave that drink to him. In spite of all of her efforts she could not cure him. He could not walk, he could not speak, he had no sign of life except his eyes. She visited him twice a day regularly, I knew it but I pretended that I knew nothing of it.

One day I went to the palace just to see how she was living there. I heard her speak to that man - "I am very distressed to see you in this condition. I always speak to you and you never say a word to me, how long you will be silent? Speak at least one word to me." Hearing this, I appeared before her and said to her - "Madam, You have mourned enough. It is time to give up this mourning which is not good for both of us. You have forgotten what you owe to yourself and me." She said - "Please do not stop me from mourning because this grief is not going to lessen with time." When she didn't listen to me, I came back, and she mourned for two whole years.

I went there second time when I heard her speak - "You have not spoken to me for three years. Tell me what by what miracle you have become like this?" I tried to see who it was, he was a black Indian, a native of that country. I was so angry that I appeared all of a sudden there, and addressing the tomb, cried - "O tomb, Why don't you swallow up these two monsters?" I had scarcely finished these words that the Queen cried - "You are the reason of my grief. I have tolerated you for so long and you have come to insult me?"

I took out my dagger, and wanted to hit her that she spoke some magic words and said - "I command you to be half man and half marble." Immediately I became as you are seeing me now, a dead man among the living and a living among the dead. By another magic she brought me here, she destroyed my capital and reduced it to a pond. The fishes of four colors in the pond are - the white are Muslims, the red are Persians who worship fire, the blue are the Christians, and the yellow are the Jews. The four little hills were our islands that gave the name to this kingdom. I knew all this from the same magician. But this is not all. She comes here and beats me on my naked shoulder 100 times with an ox tail, then she first covers me with a coarse stuff of goat's hair and then this brocade."

The Sultaan was so sorry to hear all this that he could not even console the young man. After a while he spoke - "Tell me, Where are the magician and the wretched man?" The Prince said - "The wretched man is in the Palace of Tears in a handsome tomb in the form of a dome, and that palace joins the castle on the side of the gate. I don't know about where the magician lives, but everyday at sunrise she goes to see him after beating me. You can see that I am not able to defend myself. She carries the drink to cure him."

The Sultaan showed his sympathy to him and told him who he was, why he entered the castle and that he would help to release him and punish the magician. The night was over by now, so the Sultaan took some rest, but the Prince couldn't sleep at all. He had not slept since he was turned in this form.

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