Then I, ‘’Tis a sin!’; and he, ‘No sin to me!’ So I had him at once with a counterfeit poke.”[59]
When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words, the light became darkness in his sight and he said:
“O King, thou hast in thy household fair women and female slaves, who have not their like in this age: shall not these suffice thee without me? Do thy will with them and let me go!”
She replied:
“Thou sayest sooth, but it is not with them that one who loveth thee can heal himself of torment and can abate his fever; for, when tastes and inclinations are corrupted by vice, they hear and obey other than good advice. So leave arguing and listen to what the poet saith:—
Seest not the bazaar with its fruit in rows? These men are for figs and for sycamore those![60]
“And what another saith:—
O beauty’s Union! love for thee’s my creed; free choice of Faith and eke my best desire:
Women I have forsworn for thee; so may deem me all men this day a shaveling friar.
“And yet another:—