The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Then sat she down and said to me, "O my sister, I have a brother who
hath had sight of thee at sundry wedding feasts and festive seasons: he
is a youth handsomer than I, and he hath fallen desperately in love
with thee, for that bounteous Destiny hath garnered in thee all beauty
and perfection; and he hath given silver to this old woman that she
might visit thee; and she hath contrived on this wise to foregather us
twain. He hath heard that thou art one of the nobles of thy tribe nor
is he aught less in his; and, being desirous to ally his lot with thy
lot, he hath practised this device to bring me in company with thee;
for he is fain to marry thee after the ordinance of Allah and his
Apostle; and in what is lawful and right there is no shame." When I
heard these words and saw myself fairly entrapped in the house, I said,
"Hearing is consenting." She was delighted at this and clapped her
hands;[FN#336] whereupon a door opened and out of it came a young man
blooming in the prime of life, exquisitely dressed, a model of beauty
and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace, with gentle winning
manners and eyebrows like a bended bow and shaft on cord, and eyes
which bewitched all hearts with sorcery lawful in the sight of the
Lord; even as saith some rhymer describing the like of him:—
His face as the face of the young moon shines * And Fortune stamps him
with pearls for signs.[FN#337]
And Allah favour him who said:—
Blest be his beauty; blest the Lord's decree * Who cast and shaped a
thing so bright of blee:
All gifts of beauty he conjoins in one; * Lost in his love is all
humanity;
For Beauty's self inscribed on his brow * "I testify there be no Good
but he!"[FN#338]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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