amongst them was a young lady riding on a she-mule with a saddle of brocade and stirrups of gold. She wore an outer veil of fine stuff, and her waist was girt with a girdle of gold-embroidered silk; and she was even as saith the poet,
"Silky her skin and silk that zoned waist; * Sweet voice; words not o'er many nor too few: Two eyes quoth Allah 'Be,' and they became; * And work like wine on hearts they make to rue: O love I feel! grow greater every night: * O solace! Doom-day bring our interview."
And when the cortège reached Abu al-Hasan's shop, she alighted from her mule, and sitting down on the front board,[FN#176] saluted him, and he returned her salam. When Ali bin Bakkar saw her, she ravished his understanding and he rose to go away; but she said to him, "Sit in thy place. We came to thee and thou goest away: this is not fair!" Replied he, "O my lady, by Allah, I flee from what I see; for the tongue of the case saith,
'She is a sun which towereth high a-sky; * So ease thy heart with cure by Patience lent: Thou to her skyey height shalt fail to fly; * Nor she from skyey height can make descent.'"
When she heard this, she smiled and asked Abu al-Hasan, "What is the
