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'By Allah,' quoth the broker, 'thou hast spoken truly!' The
merchant asked what she said: so the broker repeated the verses
to him, and he knew that she was in the right and desisted from
buying her. Then another came forward and would have bought her
at the same price; but she looked at him and seeing that he had
but one eye, said, 'This man is one-eyed; and it is of such as he
that the poet saith:
Consort not with him that is one-eyed a day, And be on thy guard
'gainst his mischief and lies:
For God, if in him aught of good had been found, Had not curst
him with blindness in one of his eyes.'
Then the broker brought her another bidder and said to her, 'Wilt
thou be sold to this man?' She looked at him and seeing that he
was short of stature and had a beard that reached to his navel,
said, 'This is he of whom the poet speaks, when he says:
I have a friend, who has a beard, that God Caused flourish
without profit, till, behold.
'Tis, as it were, to look upon, a night Of middle winter, long
and dark and cold.'
'O my lady,' said the broker, 'look who pleases thee of these
that are present, and point him out, that I may sell thee to
him.
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