Presently the handmaid answered his verse with the following
couplets,

"Forfend me, Allah, from all thou say'st * Though my left with my
right thou shalt hew in twain.
A husband's honour my works shall keep * And I'll wone content
with his smallest gain:
Didst know me well and my nature weet * Thou hadst found me mate
of the meekest strain.
Nor all of women are like to sight * Nor all of men are of
similar grain.
The charge of a mate to the good belongs; * Let this oath by
Allah belief obtain."

Hearing these words Al-Hajjaj exclaimed, "Woe to thee, O damsel,
dost thou answer him in his verse? and do thou O young man, take
the whole, and may Allah give thee no blessing therein."[FN#103]
Answered by the young Sayyid, "Here with them, O Hajjaj, inasmuch
as thou hast given them to me, I will not oppose the order of
Allah through thee, but another time there is no union between us
twain, me and thee, as there hath been this day." Now the city of
Al-Hajjaj had two gates--the door of Destruction and the door of
Salvation; and when the youth asked him, "O Hajjaj, shall I go
forth from this or from that?" the Lieutenant of Kufah cried,
"Issue by this outlet," and showed him the Gate of Safety. Then
the youth took all the presents and fared forth by the passage
which had been shown him, and went his ways and was seen no more.
Hereupon the Grandees of the kingdom said to Al-Hajjaj, "O our
lord, how hast thou given to him these gifts and he hath on