[154]. i.e. a choice gift. The Caliph speaks half ironically, “Where’s this wonderful present, etc?” So further on when he compares her with the morning.
[155]. Again the usual pun upon the name.
[156]. Throughout the East this is the action of a servant or a slave, practised by freemen only when in danger of life or extreme need and therefore humiliating.
[157]. It had been thrown down from the Mamrak or small dome built over such pavilions for the purpose of light by day and ventilation by night. See vol. i. 257, where it is called by the Persian term “Bádhanj.”
[158]. The Nights have more than once applied this patronymic to Zubaydah. See vol. viii. 56, 158.
[159]. Arab. “Mutahaddisín” = novi homines, upstarts.
[160]. i.e. thine auspicious visits.
[161]. He being seated on the carpet at the time.
[162]. A quotation from Al-Farazdat who had quarrelled with his wife Al-Howár (see the tale in Ibn Khallikan, i. 521), hence “the naked intercessor” became proverbial for one who cannot be withstood.
[163]. i.e. Choice Gift of the Breasts, that is of hearts, the continens for the contentum.