I return to my home?" he asked.

"Never," replied the chief justice.

Bar Shalmon left the court, feeling very downhearted. He was safe now.
The demons dared not molest him, but he longed to return to his home.

"How am I to get back to the palace?" he asked the rabbi. "Perhaps
after I have imparted my learning to the crown prince, the king will
allow me to return to my native land."

"That I cannot say. Come, fly with me," said the rabbi.

"Fly!"

"Yes; see thou hast wings."

Bar Shalmon noticed that he was now wearing a garment just like all
the demons. When he spread his arms, he found he could fly, and he
sailed swiftly through the air to the palace. With these wings, he
thought, he would be able to fly home.

"Think not that," said the rabbi, who seemed to be able to read his
thoughts, "for thy wings are useless beyond this land."

Bar Shalmon found that it would be best for him to carry out his
instructions for the present, and he set himself diligently to teach
the crown prince. The prince was an apt pupil, and the two became
great friends. King Ashmedai was delighted and made Bar Shalmon one of
his favorites.

One day the king said to him: "I am about to leave the city for a
while to undertake a campaign against a rebellious tribe of demons
thousands of miles away. I must take the crown prince with me. I leave
thee in charge of the palace."

The king gave him a huge bunch of keys.

"These," he said, "will admit into all but one of the thousand rooms
in the palace. For that one there is no key, and thou must not enter
it. Beware."

For several days Bar Shalmon amused himself by examining the hundreds
of rooms in the vast palace until one day he came to the door for
which he had no key. He forgot the king's warning and his promise to
obey.

"Open this door for me," he said to his attendants, but they replied
that they could not.

"You must," he said angrily, "burst it open."

"We do not know how to burst open a door," they said. "We are not
mortal. If we were permitted to enter the room we should just walk
through the walls."

Bar Shalmon could not do this, so he put his shoulder to the door and
it yielded quite easily.

A strange sight met his gaze. A beautiful woman, the most beautiful he
had ever seen, was seated on a throne of gold, surrounded by fairy
attendants who vanished the moment he entered.

"Who art thou?" asked Bar Shalmon, in great astonishment.

"The daughter of the kin