The Khalif Haroun er Reshid was exceeding restless one night;
so he rose and walked about his palace, till he happened on a
damsel overcome with wine. Now he was greatly enamoured of this
damsel; so he toyed with her and pulled her to him, whereupon
her girdle fell down and her trousers were unloosed and he
besought her of amorous dalliance. But she said to him, 'O
Commander of the Faithful, wait till to-morrow night, for I am
unprepared for thee, knowing not of thy coming.' So he left her
and went away.
On the morrow, he sent a page to her to announce his visit to
her apartment; but she sent back to him, saying, 'The day
obliterates the promise of the night.' So he said to his
minions, 'Make me somewhat of verse, introducing these words,
"The day obliterates the promise of the night."' 'We hear and
obey,' answered they; and Er Recashi[FN#96] came forward and
recited the following:
By Allah, an thou feltst my longing and my pain, Repose had
turned away from thee and taken flight.
A maid hath made me love-distraught, nor visiting Nor being
visited, a sad and love-lorn wight.
She promised me her grace, then turned away and said, "The day
obliterates the promise of the night."
Then Abou Musab came forward and recited these verses:
When wilt thou put away this dotage from thy spright? Thy heart
is dazed and rest to thee forbidden quite.
Is't not enough for thee to have a weeping eye And vitals still
on fire for memory and despite?
For self-conceit, indeed, he laugheth, when he saith, "The day
obliterates the promise of the night."
Last came Abou Nuwas and recited the following:
Love was prolonged and far was union out of sight, Nor skilled
it aught to feign aversion and despite.
One day, she came into the palace, drunk with wine, But even
her drunkenness with pudour was bedight.
Her upper garments dropped and left her shoulders bare And
loosened trousers showed the dwelling of delight;
Yea, and the breeze shook hips, full heavy, and a shape, As
'twere a branch, whereon pomegranates twain unite.
"Give me a tryst," quoth I; and she replied, "The place Of
visiting will be to-morrow clean and right."
Next day, I came and said, "Thy promise;" but quoth she, "The
day obliterates the promise of the night."
The Khalif bestowed a myriad each on Er Recashi and Abou Musab,
but bade strike off Abou Nuwas's head, saying, 'Thou west with
us yesternight in the palace.' 'By Allah,' answered the poet,
'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 poem; and indeed
quoth God the Most High (and He is the truest of all speakers),
"As for poets (devils ensue them!) dost thou not see how they
run wild in each valley and say that they do not?"'[FN#97] So
the Khalif forgave him and bestowed on him two myriads of gold.
MUSAB BEN EZ ZUBEIR AND AAISHEH
DAUGHTER OF TELHEH.
It is told of Musab ben ez Zubeir[FN#98] that he met Izzeh, who
was one of the shrewdest of women, in Medina and said to her,
'I have a mind to marry Aaisheh,[FN#99] daughter of Telheh, and
I would have thee go to her and spy out for me how she is
made.' So she went and returning to Musab, said, 'I have seen
her, and her face is more beautiful than health; she hath large
and well-opened eyes, an aquiline nose and smooth, oval cheeks
and a mouth like a cleft pomegranate, a neck like an ewer of
silver and a bosom with two breasts like twin pomegranates, a
slim waist and a slender belly, with a navel therein as it were
a casket of ivory, and backside like a hummock of sand.
Moreover, she hath plump thighs and legs like columns of
alabaster; but I saw her feet to be large, and thou wilt fall
short with her in time of amorous dalliance.' Upon this report,
he married her and Izzeh invited Aaisheh and the women of the
tribe of Kureish to her house, when Aaisheh sang the following,
with Musab standing by:
The mouths of girls, with their odoriferous, Sweet breath and
their witching smiles, are sweet to buss;
Yet ne'er have I tasted them, but in thought of him; And by
thought, indeed, the Ruler rules over us.
The night of his going in to her, he departed not from her,
till after seven courses; and on the morrow, a freed-woman of
his met him and said to him, 'May I be thy ransom! Thou art
perfect, even in this.'
Quoth a certain woman, 'I was with Aaisheh, when her husband
came in to her, and she lusted to him; so he fell upon her and
she puffed and snorted and made use of all manner of rare
motions and strange inventions, and I the while within hearing.
So when he came out from her, I said to her, "How canst thou,
with thy rank and nobility and condition, do thus, and I in thy
house?" Quoth she, "A woman should bring her husband all of
which she is mistress, by way of excitations and rare motions.
What mislikest thou of this?" And I answered, "I would have
this anights." "Thus is it by day," rejoined she, "and by night
I do more than this; for, when he sees me, desire stirs in him
and he falls on heat; so he puts out his hand to me and I obey
him, and it is as thou seest."'