So the king spared her life for one day so she could finish the story the next night. The king asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said there was no time, as dawn was breaking. The night passed by, and Scheherazade stopped in the middle. The king lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. Once in the king's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved younger sister, Dunyazad, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts, and accomplishments and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well-read and well-bred. Scheherazade had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. Sir Richard Burton's translation of The Nights describes Scheherazade in this way: Eventually, the vizier could find no more virgins of noble blood and, against her father's wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to marry the king. The story goes that the monarch Shahryar, on discovering that his first wife was unfaithful to him, resolved to marry a new virgin every day and to have her beheaded the next morning before she could dishonor him. Scheherazade and the sultan by German painter Ferdinand Keller, 1880
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