At length it was settled between them that three days should be given to pleasant hospitality and that then should follow what had to be said and done . Then the prince went to his own quarters and was treated as became his station . King Quimus now sent for his daughter and for her mother , Gulrukh , -LSB- 6 -RSB- and talked to them . He said to Mibrafruz : ` Listen to me , you cruel flirt ! Why do you persist in this folly ? Now there has come to ask your hand a prince of the east , so handsome that the very sun grows modest before the splendour of his face ; he is rich , and he has brought gold and jewels , all for you , if you will marry him . A better husband you will not find . ' But all the arguments of father and mother were wasted , for her only answer was : ' O my father ! I have sworn to myself that I will not marry , even if a thousand years go by , unless someone answers my riddle , and that I will give myself to that man only who does answer it . ' The three days passed ; then the riddle was asked : ` What did the rose do to the cypress ? ' The prince had an eloquent tongue , which could split a hair , and without hesitation he replied to her with a verse : ` Only the Omnipotent has knowledge of secrets ; if any man says , `` I know '' do not believe him . ' Then a servant fetched in the polluted , blue-eyed headsman , who asked : ` Whose sun of life has come near its setting ? ' took the prince by the arm , placed him upon the cloth of execution , and then , all merciless and stony hearted , cut his head from his body and hung it on the battlements . The news of the death of Prince Tahmasp plunged his father into despair and stupefaction . He mourned for him in black raiment for forty days ; and then , a few days later , his second son , Prince Qamas , extracted from him leave to go too ; and he , also , was put to death . One son 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 XXXXX your death . '
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