And the wicked minister said: "If you will not marry me, I will kill you, too."
Then the princess thought in her heart: "If I do not appear to yield, he will kill
me, too, without a doubt. I must employ a trick." Then she said: "Await me here,
until I wash from my clothes and my body the stains of my children's blood."
The minister accursed of God replied: "Very well. I await you here."
Then the princess Djouher went out of her tent. The rain was falling in torrents.
The princess, fleeing precipitately, walked during the whole night, not knowing
where she was going. She had walked many hours when day broke. The princess
arrived thus near a tree in the midst of the plain, and, having measured its height
with her eyes, she climbed into it. At this moment there passed along the road a
merchant who had made his sales and was returning to the city of Bassrah. His
name was Biyapri. Passing beneath the tree he raised his eyes and beheld a
woman seated in the tree.
"Who are you?" he said; "are you woman or djinn?"
"I am neither demon nor djinn, but a descendant of the prophet of God (may
blessings rest upon him), a disciple of the prophet Mahomet, envoy of God."
Biyapri climbed up the tree, put her on his camel, and taking up his journey
conducted her to the country of Bassrah. Arriving at his house he desired to
marry her. But she put him off saying: "Wait, for I have made a solemn vow
before God not to look upon the face of a man for forty days. When the time
expires, that will be possible. But if these forty days have not yet run I should
surely die." So Biyapri installed her on his latticed roof and lavished attention
and care upon her.
Immediately after the flight of the princess Djouher-Mani-kam the minister
commanded the whole escort to return and present itself to the King Chah
Djouhou. He said to his people: "O all your servants of the Queen, see what has
been her conduct. Her three children are dead, and it is she who killed them.
After that she disappeared. Where has she taken refuge? Nobody in the world
knows that. As for you, depart, bear the bodies of his three children to King
Chah Djouhou, and tell him all the circumstances."
Arriving in the presence of the King, they reported all the circumstances of the
minister's treachery toward the princess, and the murder of his three children.