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 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 can not settle down or indeed sit down off my feet . ' In the end he , too , got leave to go ; but he went a 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 XXXXX the city , saw the tent and the drums , and then went out again to a village not far off .
by if in near off on over unless until upon