RAFI I was insolent only that her name should be forgotten in thy anger and my death, O Splendour of Islam!
CALIPH A crafty excuse for impoliteness. Wilt thou now begin to be polite to the tyrant whose coffin was to be nailed over his open eyes? He who hopes for his audience to forget the subject of his discourse should moderate his style.
RAFI
God blind me that I may not see her!
CALIPH Why? Dost thou not love her still? Is not the sight of his beloved to the victim of separation like the vision of a fountain to him who dies of thirst?
HASSAN
(Aside) But if that fountain be a fountain whose drops are blood?
RAFI
Thou, thou hast held her in thy arms! O God, have pity on my soul!
CALIPH But with this knowledge thou didst still desire her, and was ready to wreck Bagdad for the sparkle of her eyes.
RAFI
But first the blood of her possessor should have washed her honour clean.
CALIPH
Thou art a most ridiculous man. Thou hast built thy monstrous tower
of crime on a foundation of painted smoke. Dost thou imagine
I have tasted all the fruit of my garden?
RAFI Allah has given thee men's bodies, but it is for him alone to torment the soul. By thy faith, O Caliph, speak the truth!