'From the plain of his face springs a minaret * Like a bezel of ring on his finger set: Did creation enter that vasty nose * No created thing would elsewhere be met.'" When Shihab al-Din heard this, he came down from his shop and seized the broker by the collar, saying, "O scurviest of brokers, what aileth thee to bring us a damsel to flout and make mock of us, one after other, with her verses and talk that a curse is?" So the broker took her and carried her away from before him and fared, saying, "By Allah, all my life long, since I have plied this profession never set I eyes on the like of thee for unmannerliness nor aught more curst to me than thy star, for thou hast cut off my livelihood this day and I have gained no profit by thee save cuffs on the neck-nape and catching by the collar!" Then he brought her to the shop of another merchant, owner of negro slaves and white servants, and stationing her before him, said to her, "Wilt thou be sold to this my lord 'Alá al-Dín?" She looked at him and seeing him hump-backed, said, "This is a Gobbo," and quoth the poet of him, 'Drawn in thy shoulders are and spine thrust out, * As seeking star which Satan gave the lout;[FN#466] Or as he tasted had first smack of scourge * And looked in marvel for a second bout.' And saith another on the same theme, 'As one of you who mounted mule, * A sight for me to ridicule: Is 't not a farce? Who feels surprise * An start and bolt with him the mule?' And another on a similar subject, 'Oft hunchback addeth to his bunchy back * Faults which gar folk upon his front look black: Like branch distort and dried by length of days * With citrons hanging from it loose and slack.'" With this the broker hurried up to her and, carrying her to another merchant, said to her, "Wilt thou be sold to this one?" She looked at him and said, "In very sooth this man is blue-eyed;[FN#467] how wilt thou sell me to him?" Quoth one of the poets, 'His eyelids sore and bleared * Weakness of frame denote: Arise, ye folk and see * Within his eyes the mote!'" Then the broker carried her to another and she looked at him and seeing that he had a long beard, said to the broker, "Fie upon thee! This is a ram, whose tail hath sprouted from his gullet. Wilt thou sell me to him, O unluckiest of brokers? Hast thou not heard say: 'All long of beard are little of wits? Indeed, after the measure of the length of the beard is the lack of sense; and this is a well-known thing among men of understanding.' As saith one of the poets, 'Ne'er was a man with beard grown overlong, * Tho' be he therefor reverenced and fear'd, But who the shortness noted in his wits * Added to longness noted in his beard.' And quoth another,[FN#468] 'I have a friend with a beard which God hath made to grow to a useless length, It is like unto one of the nights of winter long and dark and cold.'"