سندبادنامه 185.21

185.21

Story of the Master of the House with the Woman and the Parrot
and skill, loses the thread of sagacity in the riddle of women's wiles! If
you wish the reality of this state of affairs to be disclosed and verified for you, send the mistress of the house out of the home on some pretext,
and command the chastisement and interrogation of a servant-girl who is an intimate of the house, a confidante of the dwelling, and a trusted keeper
of secrets, so that she tells whatever has transpired, and this veil may be lifted from before it.' In accordance with his sound advice, the man entered the house,
that the veil be lifted from before it. According to his approval, the man entered the house,
carried out this resolution, and presented threats and severe pressure to the servant-girl who was the companion of intimacy and the repository of the woman's secrets.
She stated whatever had happened in detail and
in summary, explaining it from beginning to end; and the beauty of the face of the bride of certainty
emerged all the more beautifully from the veil of doubt and suspicion, and it became known that
the parrot had been innocent like Joseph’s wolf, and like the she-camel of Ṣāliḥ had without any guilt
become food for the sword; and that what had been executed and carried out in its regard was pure oppression
and sheer injustice, and immediately the penalty for that evil consequence had to be faced,
and the retribution for that unbridled impulse had to be borne; and that what he had done had proceeded from haste,
the prevailing whispering of Satan, and the phantasm of the deluding concupiscent soul. Bewilderment and grief
overcame him, and anguish and agitation appeared; tears of regret poured from his eyes onto the surface of
his cheeks, and out of grief and sorrow he would say: