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in which I most delight of [the things of] your world are three: women and perfume and the solace of my eyes in prayer.’ Verily, God hath appointed boys to serve His prophets and saints in Paradise, because Paradise is the abode of delight and pleasance, which could not be complete without the service of boys; but, as to the use of them for aught but service, it is sin and corruption. How well saith the poet:
Men’s turning unto boys is very frowardness; Who noble[1] women loves is noble[1] none the less.
What difference ’twixt the lewd and him whose bedfellow A houri is, for looks a very sorceress.
He rises from her couch and she hath given him scent; He perfumes all the house therewith and each recess.
No boy, indeed, is worth to be compared with her: Shall aloes evened be with what not filthiness?”
Then said she, “O folk, ye have made me overpass the bounds of modesty and the province of free-born women and indulge in idle talk and freedoms of speech, that beseem not people of learning. But the breasts of the noble are the tombs of secrets, and conversations of this kind are in confidence. Moreover, actions are according to intents, and I ask pardon of God for myself and you and all Muslims, seeing that He is forgiving and merciful.”
With this she held her peace and thereafter would answer us of nought; so we went our way, rejoicing in that we had profited by her discourses and sorrowing to part from her.
