I gave that dinner to show what a great and rich king I was , and not because I really wanted to be kind to the animals . Now I am ashamed , and it serves me right . Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really truly wise man , Best Beloved . After that he never forgot that it was silly to show off ; and now the real story part of my story begins . He married ever so many wifes . He married nine hundred and ninety-nine wives , besides the Most Beautiful Balkis ; and they all lived in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely garden with fountains . He did n't really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives , but in those days everybody married ever so many wives , and of course the King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King . Some of the wives were nice , but some were simply horrid , and the horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too , and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud , and that was horrid for him . But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with Suleiman-bin-Daoud . She loved him too much . She sat in her rooms in the Golden Palace , or walked in the Palace garden , and was truly sorry for him . Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring on his finger and call up the Djinns and the Afrits they would have magicked all those nine hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome wives into white mules of the desert or greyhounds or pomegranate seeds ; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud thought that that would be showing off . So , when they quarrelled too much , he only walked by himself in one part of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished he had never been born . One day , when they had quarrelled for three weeks -- all nine hundred and ninety-nine wives together -- Suleiman-bin-Daoud went out for peace and quiet as usual ; and among the orange trees he met Balkis the Most Beautiful , very sorrowful because Suleiman-bin-Daoud was so worried . And she said to him , ' O my Lord and Light of my Eyes , turn the ring upon your finger and show these Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia and China that you are the great and terrible King . ' But Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his head and said , ' O my Lady and Delight of my Life , remember the Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed before all the animals in all the world because I showed off . Now , if I showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China , merely because they worry me , I might be made even more ashamed than I have been . ' And Balkis the Most Beautiful said , ' O my Lord and Treasure of my Soul , what will you do ? ' And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said , ' O my Lady and Content of my Heart , I shall continue to endure my fate at the hands of these nine hundred and ninety-nine Queens who vex me with their continual quarrelling . ' So he went on between the lilies and the loquats and the roses and the cannas and the heavy-scented ginger-plants that grew in the garden , till he came to the great camphor-tree that was called the Camphor Tree of Suleiman-bin-Daoud .
But Balkis hid among the tall irises and the spotted bamboos and the red lillies behind the XXXXX , so as to be near her own true love , Suleiman-bin-Daoud .
Animal Balkis China Djinns Queens camphor-tree ginger-plants pomegranate quarrelling weeks