midnight
At these words the pen , with a quivering movement , arose , and scratching the paper with a shrill sound , as if it would weep and moan , wrote down some utterly unintelligible characters , with the number `` 8 '' beneath them , and surrounded the whole writing with a circle to signify that there was nothing more to come . Everybody laughed . It was plain that the spirit also loved its little joke , and was angry with the Sultana for torturing it with so many silly questions . It was then the third hour after midnight , all the clocks in the room had at that moment struck the hour . After that the odalisks fell a-dancing again , and the eunuch-buffoons exhibited a puppet show on a curtained stage , which greatly diverted the ladies of the harem . But the number `` 8 '' would not go out of the head of the favorite , and as all the clocks in the room , one after the other , struck four , she took out the pen , and with an incredulous , mocking smile on her face , but with horror in her heart , she asked , `` Come , tell me again , if thou hast not forgotten , how many hours have I got to live ? '' The pen wrote down the number `` 7 . ''