En Numan ben el Mundhir, King of the Arabs [of Irak], had a
daughter named Hind, who was eleven years old and was the
loveliest woman of her age and time. She went out one Easter,
which is a feast-day of the Nazarenes,[FN#138] to the White
Church, to take the sacrament. Now that day came to El Hireh a
young man called Adi ben Zeid,[FN#139] with presents from
Chosroës,[FN#140] to En Numan, and he also went into the White
Church, to communicate. He was tall and well-favoured, with
handsome eyes and smooth cheeks, and had with him a company of
his people. Now there was with Hind a slave-girl named Mariyeh,
who was enamoured of Adi, but had not been able to win to him.
So, when she saw him in the church, she said to Hind, 'Look at
yonder youth. By Allah, he is handsomer than all thou seest!'
'And who is he?' asked Hind. 'Adi ben Zeid,' answered Mariyeh
Quoth the princess, 'I fear lest he know me, if I draw near,
to look on him closelier.' 'How should he know thee,' said
Mariyeh, 'when he has never seen thee?' So she drew near him
and found him jesting with his companions; and indeed he
surpassed them all, not only in his beauty, but in the excellence
of his speech and the eloquence of his tongue and the richness
of his apparel. When the princess saw him, she was ravished with
him, her reason was confounded and her colour changed; and
Mariyeh, seeing her inclination to him, said to her, 'Speak to
him.' So she spoke to him and went away.
When he saw her and heard her speech, he was captivated by her
and his wit was dazed; his colour changed and his heart
fluttered, so that his companions misdoubted of him, and he
whispered one of them to follow her and find out who she was.
The man followed her and returning to his master, informed him
that she was the princess Hind, daughter of En Numan. So Adi
left the church, knowing not whither he went, for stress of
love, and reciting the following verses:
Companions mine, yet one more favour I entreat: Address ye to
the ways once more your travelling feet.
Turn me towards the lands, the lands where Hinda dwells; Then
go and her I love with tidings of me greet.
Then he went to his lodging and lay that night, restless nor
tasting sleep. On the morrow, Mariyeh accosted him, and he
received her kindly, though before he would not hearken to her,
and said to her, 'What is thy will?' Quoth she, 'I have a suit
to thee.' 'Name it,' answered he; 'for, by Allah, thou shalt
not ask me aught, but I will give it thee!' So she told him
that she was in love with him, and her suit to him was that he
would grant her a lover's privacy; and he agreed to do her
will, on condition that she would serve him with Hind and make
shift to bring them together. Then he took her into a vintner's
shop, in one of the by-streets of Hireh, and lay with her;
after which she returned to Hind and said to her, 'Dost thou
not long to see Adi?' 'How can this be?' replied the princess.
'Indeed my longing for him makes me restless, and no repose is
left me since yesterday, on his account.' Quoth Mariyeh, 'I
will appoint him to be in such a place, where thou canst look
on him from the palace.' 'Do what thou wilt,' replied Hind and
agreed with her upon the place.
So Adi came, and the princess looked out upon him; and when she
saw him, she was like to fall down from the top of the palace
and said to Mariyeh, 'Except thou bring him in to me this
night, I shall die.' So saying, she fell down in a swoon, and
her serving-women lifted her up and bore her into the palace;
whilst Mariyeh hastened to En Numan and discovered the whole
matter to him, saying, 'Verily, she is mad for love of Adi; and
except thou marry her to him, she will be put to shame and die
of love for him.' The King bowed his head awhile in thought and
exclaimed again and again, 'Verily, we are God's and to Him we
return!' Then said he, 'Out on thee! How shall the marriage be
brought about, seeing it misliketh me to open the matter to
him?' 'He is yet more ardently in love and yet more desireful
of her than she of him,' answered Mariyeh; 'and I will so order
the matter that he shall be unaware that his case is known to
thee; but do not betray thyself, O King.'
Them she went to Adi and said to him, 'Make a feast and bid the
King thereto; and when wine hath gotten the better of him, ask
of him the hand of his daughter, for he will not refuse thee.'
Quoth Adi, 'I fear lest this enrage him against me and be the
cause of enmity between us.'
But she answered, 'I came not to thee, till I had settled the
whole matter with him.' Then she returned to En Numan and said
to him, 'Seek of Adi that he entertain thee in his house.'
'There is no harm in that,' replied the King and after three
days, besought Adi to give him and his lords the morning-meal
in his house. The young man consented, and the King went to
him; and when the wine had taken effect on En Numan, Adi rose
and sought of him his daughter in marriage. He consented and
married them and brought her to him after three days; and they
abode at En Numan's court, in all delight and solace of life,
three years, at the end of which time the King was wroth with
Adi and slew him. Hind mourned for him with an exceeding grief
and built her a convent without the city, whither she retired
and devoted herself to religious exercises, weeping and
bemoaning her husband, till she died. And her convent is extant
to this day without El Hireh.
DIBIL EL KHUZAÏ WITH THE LADY AND MUSLIM
BEN EL WELID.
(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?
She smiled at this, (never saw I fairer than her mouth nor
sweeter than her lips,) and answered me, without hesitation, as
follows:
I prithee, what hath destiny to do betwixt us twain? Thou'rt
destiny: rejoice us, then, with union and delight.
At this, I sprang up and kissing her hands, said, "I had not
thought that Fortune would vouchsafe me such an opportunity. Do
thou follow me, not of command or against thy will, but of thy
grace and favour to me." Then I went on and she after me.
Now I had not, at that time, a lodging I deemed fit for the
like of her; Muslim ben El Welid[FN#143] was my fast friend,
and he had a handsome house. So I made for his abode and
knocked at the door, whereupon he came out, and I saluted him,
saying, "It is for a time like this that friends are treasured
up." "With all my heart," answered he; "enter." So we entered,
I and the lady, but found money scarce with him. However, he
gave me a handkerchief, saying, "Carry it to the market and
sell it and buy meat and what else thou needest." So I took the
handkerchief and hastening to the market, sold it and bought
meat and what else we required; but, when I returned, I found
that Muslim had retired, with the lady, to an underground
chamber.[FN#144] When he heard me, he came out and said to me,
"God requite thee the kindness thou hast done me, O Abou
Ali,[FN#145] and reckon it of thy good deeds on the Day of
Resurrection!" So saying, he took from me the meat and wine and
shut the door in my face His words enraged me and I knew not
what to do; but he stood behind the door, shaking for mirth;
and when he saw me thus, he said to me, "I conjure thee on my
life, O Abou Ali, tell me who it was composed this verse?
I lay in the arms of the fair one all night, Whilst my friend
slept, clean-limbed, but polluted of spright."
At this, my rage redoubled, and I replied, "He who wrote this
other verse:
One, I wish him in's girdle a thousand of horns, Exceeding the
idol Menaf[FN#146] in their height!"
Then I began to revile him and reproach him with the foulness
of his conduct and his lack of honour; and he was silent. But,
when I had finished, he smiled and said, "Out on thee, O fool!
Thou hast entered my house and sold my handkerchief and spent
my money: so, with whom art thou wroth, O pimp?" Then he left
me and went away to her, whilst I said, "By Allah, thou art
right to call me a fool and a pimp!" Then I left his door and
went away in sore concern, whereof I feel the trace in my heart
to this day; and I never had my desire of her nor ever heard of
her more.