There was once shown to the Amir Ali ben Mohammed ben Abdallah
ben Tahir[FN#195] a slave-girl, who was excellently handsome
and well-bred and an accomplished poetess; and he asked her of
her name. 'May God advance the Amir,' replied she, 'my name is
Mounis.' Now he knew this before; so he bowed his head awhile,
then raising his eyes to her, recited the following verse:
What dost thou say of one, on whom sickness and pain have
wrought, For love and longing after thee, till he is grown
distraught?
'God exalt the Amir!' answered she and recited this verse in
reply:
An if we saw a lover true, on whom the pangs of love Were sore,
we would to him vouchsafe the favours that he sought.
Her reply pleased him; so he bought her for threescore and ten
thousand dirhems and begat on her Obeidallah teen Mohammed,
after police-magistrate [at Baghdad].
THE WOMAN WHO HAD A BOY AND THE OTHER
WHO HAD A MAN TO LOVER.
(Quoth Abou el Ainaä[FN#196]), There were in our street two
women, one of whom had to lover a man and the other a beardless
boy, and they foregathered one night on the roof of a house,
not knowing that I was within hearing. Quoth one to the other,
"O my sister, how canst thou brook the harshness of thy lover's
beard, as it falls on thy breast, when he kisses thee, and his
moustaches rub thy cheek and lips?" "Silly wench that thou
art," replied the other, "what adorns the tree but its leaves
and the cucumber but its bloom? Didst ever see aught uglier
than a scald-head, with his beard plucked out? Knowest thou not
that the beard is to men as the side-locks to women; and what
is the difference between the chin and the cheek? Knowest thou
not that God (blessed and exalted be He) hath created an angel
in heaven, who saith, 'Glory be to Him who adorneth men with
beards and women with tresses?' So, were not the beard even as
the tresses in comeliness, it had not been coupled with them, O
silly woman! How shall I underlie a boy, who will be hasty with
me in emission and forestall me in flaccescence, and leave a
man, who, when he takes breath, clips close and when he enters,
goes leisurely, and when he has done, repeats, and when he
pushes, pushes hard, and as often as he withdraws, returns?"
The other was edified by her speech and said, "I forswear my
lover by the Lord of the Kaabeh!"