[8]. i.e., the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time, Chance.
[9]. Arab. "Bárid," silly, noyous, contemptible; as in the proverb
Two things than ice are colder cold:—
An old man young, a young man old.
A "cold-of-countenance" = a fool: "May Allah make cold thy face!" = may it show want and misery. "By Allah, a cold speech!" = a silly or abusive tirade (Pilgrimage, ii. 22).
[10]. The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the eye."
[11]. Not the first time that royalty has played this prank, nor the last, perhaps.
[12]. i.e. the Lady Dunya.
[13]. These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the ground floor, where robbery is almost impossible.
[14]. Lit. "approbation," "benediction"; also the Angel who keeps the Gates of Paradise and who has allowed one of the Ghilmán (or Wuldán) the boys of supernatural beauty that wait upon the Faithful, to wander forth into this wicked world.