ther for that
which he had done; but her brother said: "O King of the age, to thank
thee hath been incumbent on us; for thou hast treated my sister with
beneficence, and we have entered thine abode, and eaten of thy
provision." Then Saleh said: "If we stood serving thee, O King of the
age, a thousand years, regarding nothing else, we could not requite
thee, and our doing so would be but a small thing in comparison with thy
desert." And Saleh remained with the king, he and his mother and the
daughters of his uncle, forty days; after which he arose and kissed the
ground before the king, the husband of his sister. So the king said to
him: "What dost thou desire, O Saleh?" And he answered: "O King of the
age, we desire of thy goodness that thou wouldst give us permission to
depart; for we have become desirous of seeing again our family and our
country and our relations and our homes. We will not, however,
relinquish the service of thee, nor that of my sister nor the son of my
sister; and by Allah, O King of the age, to quit you is not pleasant to
my heart; but how can we act, when we have been reared in the sea, and
the land is not agreeable to us?" So when the king heard his words, he
rose upon his feet, and bade farewell to Saleh of the Sea and his mother
and the daughters of his uncle, and they wept together on account of the
separation. Then they said to the king: "We will never relinquish you,
but after every period of a few days we will visit you." And after this,
they flew toward the sea, and descended into it, and disappeared.

The king treated Gulnare with beneficence, and honoured her exceedingly,
and the little one grew up well; and his maternal uncle, with his
grandmother and the daughters of his uncle, after every period of a few
days used to come to the residence of the king, and to remain with him a
month, and then return to their places. The boy ceased not to increase
in beauty and loveliness until his age became fifteen years; and he was
incomparable in his perfect beauty, and his stature and his justness of
form. He had learned writing and reading, and history and grammar and
philology, and archery; and he learned to play with the spear; and he
also learned horsemanship, and all that the sons of the kings required.
There was not one of the children of the inhabitants of the city, men
and women, that talked not of the charms of that young man; for he was
of surpassing loveliness and perfection; and the king