Earlier, he added five extensions to his father's palace, on the hill of Pied Horses, some of which he named "The Temple of Melody," "The Eternal or Unsatiating Banquet," and "The Retreat of Joy, or the Dangerous."
While chilling on a mattress of feathers, slamming back flagons of Schiraz, the main character of this work sees Bababalouck followed by two dwarves. His mother had warned him in a message not to believe those "cubit-high messengers" or "trust their pious frauds," and instead of eating their melons he should impale their bearers. Earlier, he added five extensions to his father's palace, on the hill of Pied Horses, some of which he named "The Temple of Melody," "The Eternal or Unsatiating Banquet," and "The Retreat of Joy, or the Dangerous." In order to be brought to "a palace of subterranean fire," the hideous Indian merchant-wizard, Giaour, demands that the title character, a ruler with an evil eye and a penchant for harems, sacrifice fifty of the most beautiful children in the land.  These and other licentious deeds eventually gets him an audience with Eblis in Hell. Loosely based on Haroun al Rashid's grandson, the ninth Abbasid Caliph, for 10 points, name this Gothic novel by William Beckford.
While chilling on a mattress of feathers, slamming back flagons of Schiraz, the main character of this work sees Bababalouck followed by two dwarves.
{Vathek}