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ye betake you to males from the four corners of the world and forsake that which your Lord hath created for you of your wives? Nay, but ye are a froward folk.’[1] These it is that liken girls to boys, of their exceeding profligacy and frowardness and inclination to follow the devil and their own lusts, so that they say, ‘She is apt for two men;’ and these are all wanderers from the path of right. Quoth their chief Abou Nuwas:
A slender one, boyish of waist and of wit, For wencher as well as for sodomite fit.
As for what thou sayest of a boy’s whiskers and moustaches and how they add to his beauty and grace, by Allah, thou wanderest from the right path and sayest that which is other than the truth; for whiskers change the charms of the comely into ugliness; even as saith the poet:
The whiskers, that sprout on the cheek of the wight, His lovers avenge, if he ’ve done them unright.
I see not on ’s face what is like unto smoke, Except that his curls are as coals to the sight.
If the most of his paper[2] thus blackened be, where Is there room, deemest thou, for the pen to indite?
If any prefer him another above, ’Tis ignorance makes them thus turn from the light.
Night ccccxxiii Glory be to God”, continued she, “how is it hidden from thee that the perfection of delight is in women and that abiding pleasure is not to be found but with them? Seeing that God (blessed and exalted be He) hath promised His prophets and saints black-eyed damsels in Paradise and hath appointed them for a recompense of their pious works: and had God the Most High known that the supreme delight was in the possession of other than women, He had rewarded them therewith and promised it to them. And quoth he whom God bless and preserve, ‘The things
