The Two Hundred and Sixty-Fifth Night (trans. Baddawy)
The following night Shahrazad said:
I heard, O happy King, that the queen took King Badr by the hand and with her maids came out of the bath and went to the banquet room, where they sat and rested for a while. Then the maids set food before them, and they ate and washed their hands. Then the maids removed the table and set the wine service and fruits and nuts and flowers before them, and they drank, while the singing women sang all kinds of melodies and songs till nightfall.
They continued to live like this, eating and drinking and kissing and playing, for forty days. Then Queen Lab asked King Badr, “Which is more enjoyable, this place or the shop of your uncle the fava-bean seller?” He replied, “O Queen, by God, this place is more enjoyable, for my uncle is a poor man.” She laughed at his reply, and the two spent the happiest of nights in bed. But when he awoke in the morning, he did not find her beside him and asked himself, “Where could she have gone?” He felt lonely without her, and when he waited for her and she did not return, he arose from bed and, putting on his clothes, searched for her, and when he did not find her, he said to himself, “She may be in the garden.” He went into the garden and came to a running stream, beside which he saw a black bird next to a white she-bird, under a large tree full of birds of various colors. He stood and watched the birds, without being seen by them, and saw the black bird leap and mount the white she-bird three times. Soon the she-bird turned into a woman, and when he looked at her closely, he saw that she was none other than Queen Lab, and he realized that the black bird was an enchanted man whom she loved and that she had turned into a she-bird so that the man could make love to her. King Badr was seized with jealousy, and he was resentful and angry with Queen Lab because of the black bird. He returned and lay down on the bed, and a little later she came to him and kissed him and joked with him, but when his anger mounted and he did not speak a single word to her, she guessed what was troubling him and was certain that he had seen the bird mount her. But she kept it to herself and said nothing. When it was broad daylight, he said to her, “O Queen, I wish you to give me leave to go to my uncle’s shop, for I have not laid eyes on him for forty days and I long to see him.” She replied, “O Badr, go, but do not stay long, for I cannot bear to be without you or wait a single hour.” He replied, “I hear and obey,” and, mounting his horse, rode to the old man’s shop.
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence.