A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entituled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 05 (of 17)

by Unknown

ABU AL-ASWAD AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL.

Abu al-Aswad bought a native-born slave-girl, who was blind of an eye, and she pleased him; but his people decried her to him; whereat he wondered and, turning the palms of his hands upwards,[^[114]] recited these two couplets:—

They find me fault with her where I default ne’er find, ✿ Save haply that a speck in either eye may show:

But if her eyes have fault, of fault her form hath none, ✿ Slim-built above the waist and heavily made below.

And this is also told of

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[114]. When reciting the Fátihah (opening Koranic chapter), the hands are held in this position as if to receive a blessing falling from Heaven; after which both palms are passed down the face to distribute it over the eyes and other organs of sense.