Those eyes, with bowed and well arched eyebrows[[385]] dight, ✿ Like bows have struck me with their archery.
Now when the letter came to the hands of Al-Maamun, he robed the six damsels in rich raiment; and, giving them threescore thousand dinars, sent them back to their lord who joyed in them with exceeding joy,[[386]] (more especially for the monies they brought him) and abode with them in all the comfort and pleasance of life, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies. And men also recount the tale of
[348]. Again the “babes” of the eyes.
[349]. i.e. whose glance is as the light of the glowing braise or (embers). The Arab. “Mikbás” = pan or pot full of small charcoal, is an article well known in Italy and Southern Europe. The word is apparently used here because it rhymes with “Anfás” (souls, spirits).
[350]. i.e. martyrdom; a Koranic term “fi sabíli ‘llahi” = on the way of Allah.
[351]. These rhymes in -y, -ee and -ie are purposely affected, to imitate the cadence of the Arabic.
[352]. Arab. Sujúd, the ceremonial prostration, touching the ground with the forehead. So in the Old Testament “he bowed (or fell down) and worshipped” (Gen. xxiv., 26: Mat. ii., 11), of which our translation gives a wrong idea.
[353]. Thus written ا hence as has been seen, a girl is called Alfiyyah = A-shaped.
[354]. i.e. the medial form of m =