When Alaeddin found himself released and saw the Sultan sitting, he went up to him and said to him, "O my lord, since Thy Grace hath bountifully vouchsafed me my life, [577] favour me [yet farther] and tell me the manner of my offence." "O traitor," replied the Sultan, "till [but] now I knew not thine offence;" then, turning to the Vizier, he said to him, "Take him, that he may see from the windows where his palace is." Accordingly the Vizier took him and Alaeddin looked from the windows in the direction of his palace and finding the place swept and clear, like as it was before he built the palace thereon, neither seeing any trace of the latter, he was amazed and bewildered, unknowing what had happened. When he returned, the King said to him, "What hast thou seen? Where is thy palace and where is my daughter, my heart's darling and mine only one, than whom I have none other?" And Alaeddin answered him, saying, "O King of the Age, I have no knowledge thereof, neither know I what hath befallen." And the Sultan said to him, "Know, O Alaeddin, that I have pardoned thee, so thou mayst go and look into this affair and make me search for my daughter; and do not thou present thyself but with her; nay, an thou bring her not back to me, as my head liveth, I will cut off thine." "Hearkening and obedience, O King of the Age," replied Alaeddin. "Grant me but forty days' grace, and an I bring her not after that time, cut off my head and do what thou wilt." Quoth [578] the Sultan to him, "I grant thee, according to thy request, the space of forty days; but think not to flee from my hand, for that I will fetch thee back, though thou wert above the clouds, not to say upon the face of the earth." "O my lord the Sultan," rejoined Alaeddin, "as I said to Thy Grace, an I bring her not to thee in this space of time, I will present myself before thee, that thou mayst cut off my head."