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Then the voice ceased and I abode perplexed, not knowing whence it came to me; but presently it again took up its lament and recited the following verses:
Was it the ghost of Reyya that racked thy heart, when she, By night black-tressed and sombre, in dreams did visit thee?
Doth longing to thine eyelids cleave with its wakefulness, And doth the nightly phantom still rob thy soul of glee?
Unto my night, whilst darkness even as an ocean was, Wherein waves clashed and billowed, sea surging against sea,
I cried, “O night, thou weariest a lover unto whom, Except the morn, nor helper nor succour may there be.”
But, “Rail not at my slowness; for love’s the present cause Of sadness and affliction,” it answered unto me.
Now, at the first of the verses, I sprang up and made for the quarter whence the sound came, nor had the voice made an end of repeating them, ere I was with the speaker and saw a youth of the utmost beauty, the hair of whose face had not sprouted and in whose cheeks tears had worn two furrows. Night dclxxxi.Quoth I to him, ‘Fair befall thee for a youth!’ And he, ‘And thee also. Who art thou?’ ‘Abdallah ben Maamer el Caisi,’ answered I, and he said, ‘Dost thou want aught?’ Quoth I, ‘I was sitting in the Garden and nought hath troubled me this night but thy voice. With my life would I ransom thee! What aileth thee?’ And he replied, ‘Sit down.’ So I sat down and he said, ‘I am Otbeh ben el Hubab ben el Mundhir ben El Jemouh the Ansari.[1] I went out in the morning to the Mosque of El Ahzab[2] and occupied myself there awhile with inclinations and prostrations, after which I withdrew apart, to worship [privily]. Presently, up came women, as they were moons, walking with a swaying gait, and midmost them a damsel of surpassing loveliness, accomplished in beauty and grace, who stopped before me and said, ‘O
