"By Allah, couldst thou but feel my pain, *
Thy rest had turned and had fled away.
Hath left me in sorrow and love distraught, *
Unseen and unseeing, that fairest may:
She promised me grace, then jilted and said, *
The promise of night is effaced by day!'"
Then Abu Mus'ab came forward and recited these couplets,
"When wilt thou be wise and love-heat allay *
That from food and sleeping so leads astray?
Suffices thee not ever weeping eye, *
And vitals on fire when thy name they say?
He must smile and laugh and in pride must cry *
The promise of Night is effaced by Day.'"
Last came Abu Nowas and recited the following couplets,
"As love waxt longer less met we tway *
And fell out, but ended the useless fray;
One night in the palace I found her fou'; *
Yet of modesty still there was some display:
The veil from her shoulders had slipt; and showed *
Her loosened trousers Love's seat and stay:
And rattled the breezes her huge hind cheeks *
And the branch where two little pomegranates lay:
Quoth I, Give me tryst;' whereto quoth she *
To-morrow the fane shall wear best array:'
Next day I asked her, Thy word?' Said she *
The promise of Night is effaced by Day.'"
The Caliph bade give a myriad of money each to Al-Rakashi and Abu Mus'ab, but bade strike off the head of Abu Nowas, saying, "Thou wast with us yesternight in the palace." Said he, "By Allah, I slept not but in my own house! I was directed to what I said by thine own words as to the subject of the verse; and indeed quoth Almighty Allah (and He is the truest of all speakers): As for poets (devils pursue them!) dost thou not see that they rove as bereft of their senses through every valley and that they say that which they do not?'"[FN#110] So the Caliph forgave him and gave him two myriads of money. And another tale is that of
MUS'AB BIN AL-ZUBAYR AND AYISHAH HIS WIFE
It is told of Mus'ab bin al-Zubayr[FN#111] that he met in Al- Medinah Izzah, who was one of the shrewdest of women, and said to her, "I have a mind to marry Ayishah[FN#112] daughter of Talhah, and I should like thee to go herwards and spy out for me how she is made." So she went away and returning to Mus'ab, said, "I have seen her, and her face is fairer than health; she hath large and well-opened eyes and under them a nose straight and smooth as a cane; oval cheeks and a mouth like a cleft pomegranate, a neck as a silver ewer and below it a bosom with two breasts like twin- pomegranates and further down a slim waist and a slender stomach with a navel therein as it were a casket of ivory, and back parts like a hummock of sand; and plumply rounded thighs and calves like columns of alabaster; but I saw her feet to be large, and thou wilt fall short with her in time of need." Upon this report he married her,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-seventh Day
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Izzah this wise reported of Ayishah bint Talhah, Mus'ab married her and went in to her. And presently Izzah invited Ayishah and the women of the tribe Kuraysh to her house, when Ayishah sang these two couplets with Mus'ab standing by,