Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the handmaids answered the man of Al-Yaman, “We hear and we obey!” Accordingly the blonde rose first and, pointing at the black girl, said to her:—Out on thee, blackamoor! It is told by tradition that whiteness saith:—I am the shining light, I am the rising moon of the fourteenth night. My hue is patent and my brow is resplendent and of my beauty quoth the poet:—

White girl with softly rounded polished cheeks ✿ As if a pearl concealed by Beauty’s boon:

Her stature Alif-like;[[353]] her smile like Mím[[354]] ✿ And o’er her eyes two brows that bend like Nún.[[355]]

‘Tis as her glance were arrow, and her brows ✿ Bows ever bent to shoot Death-dart eftsoon:

If cheek and shape thou view, there shalt thou find ✿ Rose, myrtle, basil and Narcissus wone.

Men wont in gardens plant and set the branch; ✿ How many garths thy stature-branch doth own!

So my colour is like the hale and healthy day and the newly-culled orange-spray and the star of sparkling ray;[[356]] and indeed quoth Almighty Allah, in His precious Book, to his prophet Moses (on whom be peace!):—Put thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, without hurt.[[357]] And again He saith:—But they whose faces shall become white, shall be in the mercy of Allah; therein shall they remain for ever.[[358]] My colour is a sign, a miracle, and my loveliness supreme and my beauty a term extreme. It is on the like of me that raiment showeth fair and fine and to the like of me that hearts incline. Moreover, in whiteness are many excellences; for instance, the snow falleth white from heaven, and it is traditional that the beautifullest of colours is white. The Moslems also glory in white turbands; but I should be tedious, were I to tell all that may be told in praise of white; little and enough is better than too much of unfilling stuff. So now I will begin with thy dispraise, O black, O colour of ink and blacksmith’s dust, thou whose face is like the raven which bringeth about the parting of lovers. Verily, the poet saith in praise of white and blame of black:—

Seest not that pearls are prized for milky hue, ✿ But with a dirham buy we coals in load?

And while white faces enter Paradise, ✿ Black faces crowd Gehenna’s black abode.