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She was like the moon, when it appears on its fourteenth night, and was clad in a garment of blue, with a veil of green, over a flower-white forehead, Night dccclxvii.that amazed all wits and confounded those of understanding. And indeed she was possessed of the utmost grace and beauty and symmetry, as it were she of whom the poet would speak when he saith:
She comes in a robe the colour of ultramarine, Blue as the stainless sky unflecked with white.
I view her with yearning eyes and she seems to me A moon of the summer set in a winter’s night.
And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent!
She came unto me, straitly veiled, and I to her did say, ‘Thy face, the bright, resplendent moon, uncover and display.’
Quoth she, ‘I fear reproach,’ and I, ‘Forbear this idle talk: Let not the shifts of time and fate affright thee or dismay.’
So from her face she raised the veil that hid her charms and tears Upon the jewels of her cheeks fell, like a crystal spray.
Indeed, I thought to kiss her cheek, that thereanent to God She might make moan of me upon the Resurrection Day;
So were we twain the first to plead of lovers, each ’gainst each, Whenas the dead shall rise, before the Lord whom all obey;
And I, ‘Prolong our standing-up and reckoning,’ would say, ‘That so mine eyes may feed their fill upon my loved one aye.’
Then said the gardener to her, ‘O lady of fair ones and mistress of every shining star, know that we sought not, in bringing thee hither, but that thou shouldst entertain this comely youth here, my lord Noureddin, for he hath only come to this place this day.’ And she answered, saying, ‘Would thou hadst told me, that I might have brought what I have with me!’ ‘O my lady,’ rejoined the gardener, ‘I will go and fetch it to thee.’ ‘As thou wilt,’ replied she: and he said, ‘Give me a token.’ So she gave him a handkerchief and he went away in haste and
