Then quoth one of the sons of the merchants, “My life on thee, O my lord Nur al-Din, drink of this cup!” And another conjured him by the oath of divorce and yet another stood up persistently before him, till he was ashamed and taking the cup from the gardener, drank a draught, but spat it out again, crying, “’Tis bitter.” Said the young gardener, “O my lord Nur al-Din, knowest thou not that sweets taken by way of medicine are bitter? Were this not bitter, ’twould lack of the manifold virtues it possesseth; amongst which are that it digesteth food and disperseth cark and care and dispelleth flatulence and clarifieth the blood and cleareth the complexion and quickeneth the body and hearteneth the hen-hearted and fortifieth the sexual power in man; but to name all its virtues would be tedious.” Quoth one of the poets:—
We’ll drink and Allah pardon sinners all ✿ And cure of ills by sucking cups I’ll find:
Nor aught the sin deceives me; yet said He ✿ “In it there be advantage[[418]] to mankind.”
Then he sprang up without stay or delay and opened one of the cupboards in the pavilion and taking out a loaf of refined sugar, broke off a great slice which he put into Nur al-Din’s cup, saying, “O my lord, an thou fear to drink wine, because of its bitterness, drink now, for ’tis sweet.” So he took the cup and emptied it: whereupon one of his comrades filled him another, saying, “O my lord Nur al-Din, I am thy slave,” and another did the like, saying, “I am one of thy servants,” and a third said, “For my sake!” and a fourth, “Allah upon thee, O my lord Nur al-Din, heal my heart!” And so they ceased not plying him with wine, each and every of the ten sons of merchants till they had made him drink a total of ten cups. Now Nur al-Din’s body was virgin of wine-bibbing, or never in all his life had he drunken vine-juice till that hour, wherefore its fumes wrought in his brain and drunkenness was stark upon him and he stood up (and indeed his tongue was thick and his speech stammering) and said, “O company, by Allah, ye are fair and your speech is goodly and your place pleasant; but there needeth hearing of sweet music; for drink without melody lacks the chief of its essentiality, even as saith the poet:—
Pass round the cup to the old and the young man, too, And take the bowl from the hand of the shining moon,[[419]]
But without music, I charge you, forbear to drink; I see even horses drink to a whistled tune.”[[420]]
Therewith up sprang the gardener lad and mounting one of the young men’s mules, was absent awhile, after which he returned with a Cairene girl, as she were a sheep’s tail fat and delicate, or an ingot of pure silvern ore or a dinar on a porcelain plate or a gazelle in the wold forlore. She had a face that put to shame the shining sun and eyes Babylonian[[421]] and brows like bows bended and cheeks rose-painted and teeth pearly-hued and lips sugared and glances languishing and breasts ivory white and body slender and slight, full of folds and with dimples dight and hips like pillows stuffed and thighs like columns of Syrian stone, and between them what was something like a sachet of spices in wrapper swathed. Quoth the poet of her in these couplets:—
Had she shown her shape to idolaters’ sight, ✿ They would gaze on her face and their gods detest:
And if in the East to a monk she’d show’d, ✿ He’d quit Eastern posture and bow to West.[[422]]
An she crached in the sea and the briniest sea ✿ Her lips would give it the sweetest zest.