(Quoth Dibil el Khuzaï[FN#141]), I was sitting one day at the gate of El Kerkh,[FN#142] when a lady came up to me, never saw I a handsomer or better shaped than she, walking with a swaying gait and ravishing, with her flexile grace, all who beheld her. When my eyes fell on her, I was captivated by her and my entrails trembled and meseemed my heart fled forth of my breast; so I accosted her with the following verse:
Unsealed are the springs of tears for mine eyes, heigho! And
sealed are the springs of sleep to my lids, for woe.
She turned her head and looking at me, made answer forthright with the following:
And surely, an ailing eye to have, for him Whom her looks
invite, is a little thing, I trow.
I was astounded at the readiness of her reply and the sweetness of her speech and rejoined with this verse:
And doth then the heart of my fair indeed incline To favour him
whose tears as a river flow?
She answered me, without hesitation, thus:
If thou desire us of love, betwixt us love Is a loan to be returned, I'd have thee know.
Never entered my ears sweeter than her speech nor ever saw I brighter than her face: so I changed the rhyme and measure, to try her, in my wonder at her speech, and repeated the following verse:
Will destiny e'er gladden us with union and delight And one desireful one at last with other one unite?