When he ended his verse he wept with sore weeping and sobbed one sob and his spirit departed his body, which seeing they washed him and shrouded him and prayed over him and buried him graving on his tomb these couplets,
"Perfect were lover's qualities in him was brought a-morn, *
Slain by his love and his beloved, to this untimely grave:
Kázi was he amid the folk, and aye 'twas his delight * To foster
all the folk and keep a-sheath the Justice-glaive:
Love caused his doom and ne'er we saw among mankind before * The
lord and master louting low before his thrallčd slave."
Then they committed him to the mercy of Allah and went away to the second Kazi, in company with the physician, but found in him nor injury nor ailment needing a leach. Accordingly they questioned him of his case and what preoccupied him; so he told them what ailed him, whereupon they blamed him and chid him for his predicament and he answered them with these couplets,
"Blighted by her yet am I not to blame; * Struck by the dart at
me her fair hand threw.
Unto me came a woman called Hubúb * Chiding the world from year
to year anew:
And brought a damsel showing face that shamed * Full moon that
sails through Night-tide's blackest hue,
She showed her beauties and she 'plained her plain * Which tears
in torrents from her eyelids drew:
I to her words gave ear and gazed on her * Whenas with smiling
lips she made me rue.
Then with my heart she fared where'er she fared * And left me
pledged to sorrows soul subdue.
Such is my tale! So pity ye my case * And this my page with
Kazi's gear indue."
Then he sobbed one sob and his soul fled his flesh; whereupon they gat ready his funeral and buried him commending him to the mercy of Allah; after which they repaired to the third Kazi and the fourth, and there befel them the like of what befel their brethren.[FN#367] Furthermore, they found the Assessors also sick for love of her, and indeed all who saw her died of her love or, an they died not, lived on tortured with the lowe of passion.— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-first Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the city folk found all the Kazis and the Assessors sick for love of her, and all who saw her died lovesick or, an they died not, lived on tortured with the lowe of passion for stress of pining to no purpose—Allah have mercy on them one and all! Meanwhile Zayn al- Mawasif and her women drave on with all diligence till they were far distant from the city and it so fortuned that they came to a convent by the way, wherein dwelt a Prior called Danis and forty monks.[FN#368] When the Prior saw her beauty, he went out to her and invited her to alight, saying, "Rest with us ten days and after wend your ways." So she and her damsels alighted and entered the convent; and when Danis saw her beauty and loveliness, she debauched his belief and he was seduced by her: wherefore he fell to sending the monks, one after other with love-messages; but each who saw her fell in love with her and sought her favours for himself, whilst she excused and denied herself to them. But Danis ceased not his importunities till he had dispatched all the forty, each one of whom fell love-sick at first sight and plied her with blandishments never even naming Danis; whilst she refused and rebuffed them with harsh replies. At last when Danis's patience was at an end and his passion was sore on him, he said in himself, "Verily, the sooth-sayer saith, 'Naught scratcheth my skin but my own nail and naught like my own feet for mine errand may avail.'" So up he rose and made ready rich meats, and it was the ninth day of her sojourn in the convent where she had purposed only to rest. Then he carried them in to her and set them before her, saying, "Bismillah, favour us by tasting the best of the food at our command." So she put forth her hand, saying, "For the name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate!" and ate, she and her handmaidens. When she had made an end of eating, he said to her, "O my lady, I wish to recite to thee some verses." Quoth she, "Say on," and he recited these couplets,
"Thou hast won my heart by cheek and eye of thee, * I'll praise
for love in prose and poesy.
Wilt fly a lover, love-sick, love-distraught * Who strives in
dreams some cure of love to see?
Leave me not fallen, passion-fooled, since I * For pine have left
uncared the Monast'ry:
O Fairest, 'tis thy right to shed my blood, * So rue my case and
hear the cry of me!"
When Zayn al-Mawasif heard his verses, she answered him with these two couplets,
"O who suest Union, ne'er hope such delight * Nor solicit my
favours, O hapless wight!
Cease to hanker for what thou canst never have: * Next door are
the greedy to sore despight."