Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the gardener brought a girl whom we have described possessed of the utmost beauty and loveliness and fine stature and symmetrical grace as it were she the poet signified when he said[[426]]:—
She came apparelled in a vest of blue,
That mocked the skies and shamed their azure hue;
I thought thus clad she burst upon my sight,
Like summer moonshine on a wintry night.
And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent!—
She came thick veiled, and cried I, “O display ✿ That face like full moon bright with pure-white ray.”
Quoth she, “I fear disgrace,” quoth I, “Cut short ✿ This talk, no shift of days thy thoughts affray.”
Whereat she raised her veil from fairest face ✿ And crystal spray on gems began to stray: