Where do you come from ? ' The prince told everything just as it had happened to him , and then respectfully added : ' I have made known my own circumstances to you , and now I venture to beg you to tell me your own . Who are you ? How did you come to make your dwelling in this wilderness ? ' To this the faqir replied : ' O youth ! it would be best for you to have nothing to do with me and to know nothing of my fortunes , for my story is fit neither for telling nor for hearing . ' The prince , however , pleaded so hard to be told , that at last there was nothing to be done but to let him hear . ` Learn and know , O young man ! that I am King Janangir -LSB- 4 -RSB- of Babylon , and that once I had army and servants , family and treasure ; untold wealth and belongings . The Most High God gave me seven sons who grew up well versed in all princely arts . My eldest son heard from travellers that in Turkistan , on the Chinese frontier , there is a king named Quimus , the son of Timus , and that he has an only child , a daughter named Mihr-afruz , -LSB- 5 -RSB- who , under all the azure heaven , is unrivalled for beauty . Princes come from all quarters to ask her hand , and on one and all she imposes a condition . She says to them : `` I know a riddle ; and I will marry anyone who answers it , and will bestow on him all my possessions . But if a suitor can not answer my question I cut off his head and hang it on the battlements of the citadel . '' The riddle she asks is , `` What did the rose do to the cypress ? '' ` Now , when my son heard this tale , he fell in love with that unseen girl , and he came to me lamenting and bewailing himself . Nothing that I could say had the slightest effect on him . I said : `` Oh my son ! if there must be fruit of this fancy of yours , I will lead forth a great army against King Quimus . If he will give you his daughter freely , well and good ; and if not , I will ravage his kingdom and bring her away by force . ''
This plan did not please him ; he said : `` It is not right to lay a kingdom waste and XXXXX destroy a palace so that I may attain my desire .
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