they stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted, ‘what is our trouble? we were living peacefully in our golden palace, as is our custom, when upon a sudden the palace disappeared, and we were left sitting in a thick and noisome darkness; and it thundered, and djinns and afrits moved about in the darkness! that is our trouble, o head queen, and we are most extremely troubled on account of that trouble, for it was a troublesome trouble, unlike any trouble we have known.’