And her convent is extant
to this day without El Hireh.
DIBIL EL KHUZA? WITH THE LADY AND MUSLIM
BEN EL WELID.
(Quoth Dibil el Khuza?[FN#141]), I was sitting one day at the
gate of El Kerkh,[FN#142] when a lady came up to me, never saw
I a handsomer or better shaped than she, walking with a swaying
gait and ravishing, with her flexile grace, all who beheld her.
When my eyes fell on her, I was captivated by her and my
entrails trembled and meseemed my heart fled forth of my
breast; so I accosted her with the following verse:
Unsealed are the springs of tears for mine eyes, heigho! And
sealed are the springs of sleep to my lids, for woe.
She turned her head and looking at me, made answer forthright
with the following:
And surely, an ailing eye to have, for him Whom her looks
invite, is a little thing, I trow.
I was astounded at the readiness of her reply and the sweetness
of her speech and rejoined with this verse:
And doth then the heart of my fair indeed incline To favour him
whose tears as a river flow?
She answered me, without hesitation, thus:
If thou desire us of love, betwixt us love Is a loan to be
returned, I'd have thee know.
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