took him to turn aside to the house of a certain trader, a man of
the wealthiest, and when he drew near to it, suddenly he heard
from within a plaintive voice from a sorrowful heart reciting
these couplets,

"The breeze o' Morn blows uswards from her trace * Fragrant, and
heals the love-sick lover's case.
I stand like captive on the mounds and ask * While tears make
answer for the ruined place:
Quoth I, 'By Allah, Breeze o' Morning, say * Shall Time and
Fortune aye this stead regrace?
Shall I enjoy a fawn whose form bewitched * And langourous
eyelids wasted frame and face?'"

When Masrur heard this, he looked in through the doorway and saw
a garden of the goodliest of gardens, and at its farther end a
curtain of red brocade, purfled with pearls and gems, behind
which sat four damsels, and amongst them a young lady over four
feet and under five in height, as she were the rondure of the
lune and the full moon shining boon: she had eyes Kohl'd with
nature's dye and joined eyebrows, a mouth as it were Solomon's
seal and lips and teeth bright with pearls and coral's light; and
indeed she ravished all wits with her beauty and loveliness and
symmetry and perfect grace. When Masrur espied her, he entered
the porch and went on entering till he came to the curtain:
whereupon she raised her head and glanced at him. So he saluted
her and she returned his salam with sweetest speech; and, when he
considered her more straitly, his reason was dazed and his heart
amazed. Then he looked at the garden and saw that it was full of
jessamine and gilly flowers and violets and roses and orange