Quoth he, astonished, grief-stricken, with drawn lips, 'By which hand,
chosen above men?'
And she exclaimed, 'O thou witty one that feignest not to know! Wullahy!
by this hand of thine, O my lord and king, daring that it is; dexterous!
surely so! And the shaving of Shagpat was the task achieved,--I the dower
of it, and the rich reward.'
Now, he was meshed yet deeper in the net of her subtleties, and by her
calling him 'lord and king'; and she gave a signal for fresh
entertainments, exhausting the resources of her art, the mines of her
wealth, to fascinate him. Ravishments of design and taste were on every
side, and he was in the lap of abundance, beguiled by magic, caressed by
beauty and a Queen. Marvel not that he was dazzled, and imagined himself
already come to the great things foretold of him by the readers of
planets and the casters of nativities in Shiraz. He assisted in beguiling
himself, trusting wilfully to the two witnesses of things visible; as is
declared by him of wise sayings:
There is in every wizard-net a hole,
So the entangler first must blind the soul.
And it is again said by that same teacher:
Ye that the inner spirit's sight would seal,
Nought credit but what outward orbs reveal.
And the soul of Shibli Bagarag was blinded by Rabesqurat in the depths of
the Enchanted Sea. She sang to him, luting deliriously; and he was
intoxicated with the blissfulness of his fortune, and took a lute and
sang to her love-verses in praise of her, rhyming his rapture. Then they
handed the goblet to each other, and drank till they were on fire with
the joy of things, and life blushed beauteousness. Surely, Rabesqurat was
becoming forgetful of her arts through the strength of those draughts,
till her eye marked the Lily by his side, which he grasped constantly,
the bright flower, and she started and said, 'One grant, O my King, my
husband!'
So he said courteously, 'All grants are granted to the lovely, the
fascinating; and their grief will be lack of aught to ask for?'
Then said she, 'O my husband, my King, I am jealous of that silly flower:
laugh at my weakness, but fling it from thee.'
Now, he was about to cast it from him, when a vanity possessed his mind,
and he exclaimed, 'See first the thing I will do, a wonder.'