by tasting the best of the food at our command." So she put forth
her hand, saying, "For the name of Allah the Compassionating, the
Compassionate!" and ate, she and her handmaidens. When she had
made an end of eating, he said to her, "O my lady, I wish to
recite to thee some verses." Quoth she, "Say on," and he recited
these couplets,

"Thou hast won my heart by cheek and eye of thee, * I'll praise
for love in prose and poesy.
Wilt fly a lover, love-sick, love-distraught * Who strives in
dreams some cure of love to see?
Leave me not fallen, passion-fooled, since I * For pine have left
uncared the Monast'ry:
O Fairest, 'tis thy right to shed my blood, * So rue my case and
hear the cry of me!"

When Zayn al-Mawasif heard his verses, she answered him with
these two couplets,

"O who suest Union, ne'er hope such delight * Nor solicit my
favours, O hapless wight!
Cease to hanker for what thou canst never have: * Next door are
the greedy to sore despight."

Hearing this he returned to his place, pondering in himself and
knowing not how he should do in her affair, and passed the night
in the sorriest plight. But, as soon as the darkness was darkest
Zayn al-Mawasif arose and said to her handmaids, "Come, let us
away, for we cannot avail against forty men, monks, each of whom
requireth me for himself." Quoth they, "Right willingly!" So they