[FN#7] Dhai ed Dewahi.
[FN#8] i.e. sperma hominis.
[FN#9] Apparently the names of noted wrestlers.
[FN#10] A phrase of frequent occurrence in the Koran, meaning "your female slaves" or "the women ye have captured in war."
[FN#11] Quoth he (Solomon), "O chiefs, which of you will bring me her throne?" (i.e. that of Belkis, queen of Sheba) ……."I," said an Afrit of the Jinn, "will bring it thee, ere thou canst rise from thy stead, for I am able thereto and faithful!"—Koran xxvii. 38, 39.
[FN#12] One of the fountains of Paradise.
[FN#13] Kutheiyir ibn Ali Juma, a well-known poet of the seventh and eighth centuries at Medina. He was celebrated for his love of Azzeh, in whose honour most of his poems were written. The writer (or copyist) of this tale has committed an anachronism in introducing these verses, as Kutheiyir was a contemporary of the Khalif Abdulmelik ben Merwan before whose time Sherkan and his father (both imaginary characters) are stated( see supra, p. 1 {Vol. 2, FN#1}) to have lived; but the whole narrative is full of the grossest anachronisms, too numerous, indeed, to notice.
[FN#14] Jemil ben Mamer, another celebrated Arabian poet and lover, a friend and contemporary of Kutheiyir.
[FN#15] A person who dies for love is esteemed a martyr by the
Arabs.
[FN#16] I suspect these verses to have been introduced in error by some copyist. They appear utterly meaningless in this context.