THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND THE KING OF THE
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.
There was a puissant despot among the Kings of the Banú Isráíl,
who sat one day upon the throne of his kingship, when he saw come
in to him, by the gate of the hall, a man of forbidding aspect
and horrible presence. The King was affrighted at his sudden
intrusion and his look terrified him; so he sprang up before him
and said, "Who art thou, O man? Who gave thee leave to come in to
me and who invited thee to enter my house?" Quoth the stranger,
"Verily the Lord of the House sent me to thee, nor can any
doorkeeper exclude me, nor need I leave to come in to Kings; for
I reck not of a Sultan's majesty neither of the multitude of his
guards. I am he from whom no tyrant is at rest, nor can any man
escape from my grasp: I am the Destroyer of delights and the
Sunderer of societies." Now when the King heard this a palsy
crept over him[FN#459] and he fell on his face in a swoon; but
presently coming to himself, he asked, "Art thou then the Angel
of Death?"; and the stranger answered, "Yes." "I conjure thee, by
Allah," quoth the King, "grant me one single day's respite, that
I may pray pardon of my sins and ask absolution of my Lord and
restore to their rightful owners the monies which are in my
treasures, so I may not be burdened with the woe of a reckoning
nor with the misery of punishment therefor." Replied the Angel,
"Well-away! well-away! this may be in no way."--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Four Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the
Death-messenger to the King, "Well-away, well-away! this may be
in no way. How can I grant thee a reprieve when the days of thy
life are counted and thy breaths numbered and thy moments fixed
and written?" "Grant me an hour," asked the King; but the Angel
answered saying, "The hour was in the account and hath sped, and
thou unheeding aught; and hath fled, and thou taking no thought:
and now thy breathings are accomplished, and there remaineth to
thee but one breath." Quoth the King, "Who will be with me when I
am transported to my tomb?" Quoth the Angel, "Naught will be with
thee but thy works good or evil." "I have no works," said the
King; and the Angel, "Doubtless thy long home will be in
hell-fire and thy doom the wrath of the Almighty." Then he seized
the soul of the King, and he fell off his throne and dropped on
the earth dead. And there arose a mighty weeping and wailing and
clamour of keening for him among the people of his court, and had
they known that to which he went of the wrath of his Lord, their
weeping for him had been sorer and their wailing louder and more
abounding. And a story is told of
