only now remained, the brave, eloquent, happy-natured Prince
Almas-ruh-bakhsh. One day, when his father sat brooding over his lost
children, Almas came before him and said: 'O father mine! the daughter
of King Quimus has done my two brothers to death; I wish to avenge
them upon her.' These words brought his father to tears. 'O light of
your father!' he cried, 'I have no one left but you, and now you ask
me to let you go to your death.'

'Dear father!' pleaded the prince, 'until I have lowered the pride of
that beauty, and have set her here before you, I cannot settle down or
indeed sit down off my feet.'

In the end he, too, got leave to go; but he went without a following
and alone. Like his brothers, he made the long journey to the city of
Quimus the son of Timus; like them he saw the citadel, but he saw
there the heads of Tahmasp and Qamas. He went about in the city, saw
the tent and the drums, and then went out again to a village not far
off. Here he found out a very old man who had a wife 120 years old, or
rather more. Their lives were coming to their end, but they had never
beheld face of child of their own. They were glad when the prince came
to their house, and they dealt with him as with a son. He put all his
belongings into their charge, and fastened his horse in their
out-house. Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and to
keep his affairs secret. He exchanged his royal dress for another, and
next morning, just as the sun looked forth from its eastern oratory,
he went again into the city. He turned over in his mind without
ceasing how he was to find out the meaning of the riddle, and to give
them a right answer, and who could help him, and how to avenge his
brothers. He wandered about the city, but heard nothing of service,
for there was no one in all that land who understood the riddle of
Princess Mihr-afruz.

One day he thought he would go to her own palace and see if he could
learn anything there, so he went out to her garden-house. It was a
very splendid place, with a wonderful gateway, and walls like
Alexander's ramparts. Many gate-keepers were on guard, and there was
no chance of passing them. His heart was full of bitterness, but he
said to himself: 'All will be well! it is here I shall get what I
want.' He went round outside the garden wall hoping to find a gap, and
he made supplication in the Court of Supplications and prayed, 'O
Holder of the hand of the helpless! show me my way.'