Hereupon the Caliph was agitated, and emotion so overpowered him that he could not command himself for excess of pleasure, and he exclaimed, "By Allah, good! by Allah, good! by Allah, good!"[FN#59] Asked Nur al-Din, "O fisherman, doth this damsel please thee?" and the Caliph answered, "Ay, by Allah!" Whereupon said Nur al-Din, "She is a gift to thee, a gift of the generous who repenteth him not of his givings and who will never revoke his gift!" Then he sprang to his feet and, taking a loose robe, threw it over the fisherman and bade him receive the damsel and be gone. But she looked at him and said, "O my lord, art thou faring forth without farewell? If it must be so, at least stay till I bid thee good-bye and make known my case." And she began versifying in these verses, "When love and longing and regret are mine, * Must not this body show of ills a sign? My love! say not, 'Thou soon shalt be consoled'; * When state speaks state none shall allay my pine. If living man could swim upon his tears, * I first should float on waters of these eyne: O thou, who in my heart infusedst thy love, * As water mingles in the cup with wine, This was the fear I feared, this parting blow. * O thou whose love my heart-core ne'er shall tyne! O Bin Khákán! my sought, my hope, my will, * O thou whose love this breast made wholly thine! Against thy lord the King thou sinn'dst for me, * And winnedst exile in lands peregrine: Allah ne'er make my lord repent my loss * To cream[FN#60] o' men thou gavest me, one right digne." When she had ended her verses, Nur al-Din answered her with these lines, "She bade me farewell on our parting day, * And she wept in the fire of our bane and pains: 'What wilt thou do when fro' thee I'm gone?' * Quoth I, 'say this to whom life remains!'" When the Caliph heard her saying in her verse, "To Karim, the cream of men thou gavest me;" his inclination for her redoubled and it seemed a hard matter and a grievous to part them; so quoth he to the youth, "O my lord, truly the damsel said in her verses that thou didst transgress against her master and him who owned her; so tell me, against whom didst thou transgress and who is it hath a claim on thee?" "By Allah, O fisherman," replied Nur al-Din, "there befel me and this damsel a wondrous tale and a marvellous matter: an 't were graven with needle-gravers on the eye-corners it would be a warner to whoso would be warned." Cried the Caliph, "Wilt thou not tell me thy story and acquaint me with thy case? Haply it may bring thee relief, for Allah's aid is ever nearhand." "O fisherman," said Nur al-Din, "Wilt thou hear our history in verse or in prose?" "Prose is a wordy thing, but verses," rejoined the Caliph, "are pearls on string." Then Nur al-Din bowed his head, and made these couplets,