behold, the moon spread her glad light over a meadow as if 'twere of the meads of Paradise; and he heard pleasant voices and a loud noise of talk and laughter captivating the senses of men. So King Sharrkan alighted and, tying his steed to one of the trees, went over a little way till he came upon a stream and heard a woman talking in Arabic and saying, "Now by the truth of the Messiah, this is not well of you! but whoso utters a word, I will throw her and truss her up with her own girdle[FN#161]!" He kept walking in the direction of the sound and when he reached the further side he looked and behold, a stream was gushing and flowing, and antelopes at large were frisking and roving, and wild cattle amid the pasture moving, and birds expressed joy and gladness in their divers tongues, and that place was purfled with all manner flowers and green herbs, even as a poet described it in these couplets, "Most beautiful is earth in budding bloom, * When lucid waters course through plain and wood: No work but His th' All great, th' All glorious, * Giver of all gifts, Giver of all good!" And as Sharrkan considered the place, he saw in it a Christian Monastery within whose enceinte a castle towered high in air catching the light of the moon.[FN#162] Through the midst of the convent passed a stream, the water flowing amongst its gardens; and upon the bank sat the woman whose voice he had heard, while before her stood ten handmaids like moons and wearing various sorts of raiment and ornaments that dazed and dazzled the beholder, high-bosomed virgins, as saith of them the poet in these couplets, "The mead is bright with what is on't * Of merry maidens debonnair: Double its beauty and its grace * Those trooping damsels slender-fair: Virgins of graceful swimming gait * Ready with eye and lip to ensnare; And like the tendril'd vine they loose * The rich profusion of their hair: Shooting their shafts and arrows from * Beautiful eyes beyond compare; Overpowering and transpiercing * Every froward adversaire." Sharrkan gazed upon the ten girls and saw in their midst a lady like the moon at fullest, with ringleted hair and forehead sheeny-white, and eyes wondrous wide and black and bright, and temple-locks like the scorpion's tail; and she was perfect in essence and attributes, as the poet said of her in these couplets, "She beamed on my sight with a wondrous glance, * And her straight slender stature enshamed the lance: She burst on my sight with cheeks rosy-red, * Where all manner of beauties have habitance: And the locks on her forehead were lowering as night * Whence issues a dawn-tide of happiest chance."