Then the broker carried her to another and she looked at him and seeing that he had a long beard, said to the broker, “Fie upon thee! This is a ram, whose tail hath sprouted from his gullet. Wilt thou sell me to him, O unluckiest of brokers? Hast thou not heard say:—All long of beard are little of wits? Indeed, after the measure of the length of the beard is the lack of sense; and this is a well-known thing among men of understanding.” As saith one of the poets:—
Ne’er was a man with beard grown overlong, ✿ Tho’ be he therefor reverenced and fear’d,
But who the shortness noted in his wits ✿ Added to longness noted in his beard.
And quoth another[[467]]:—
I have a friend with a beard which God hath made to grow to a useless length,
It is like unto one of the nights of winter long and dark and cold.
With this the broker took her and turned away with her, and she asked, “Whither goest thou with me?” He answered, “Back to thy master the Persian; it sufficeth me what hath befallen me because of thee this day; for thou hast been the means of spoiling both my trade and his by thine ill manners.” Then she looked about the market right and left, front and rear till, by the decree of the Decreer her eyes fell on Ali Nur al-Din the Cairene. So she gazed at him and saw him[[468]] to be a comely youth of straight slim form and smooth of face, fourteen years old, rare in beauty and loveliness and elegance and amorous grace like the full moon on the fourteenth night with forehead flower-white, and cheeks rosy red, neck like alabaster and teeth than jewels finer and dews of lips sweeter than sugar, even as saith of him one of his describers:—
Came to match him in beauty and loveliness rare ✿ Full moons and gazelles, but quoth I, “Soft fare!
Fare softly, gazelles, nor yourselves compare ✿ With him and, O Moons, all your pains forbear!”
And how well saith another bard:—