When Muhjat al-Kulub ended her song, Yusuf gifted her with a splendid robe and a thousand gold pieces as eke did Ibrahim and presently the courtier said to the handmaiden, “Who is Ibrahim that thou shouldst sing of him in song?” She replied, “Wallahi, O my lord, he is son of Ishak, amongst the pleasant ones sans peer and a cup-companion to the Caliphs dear and the pearl concealed and the boon friend of our lord the Commander of the Faithful Al-Maamun and his familiar who to him joy and enjoyment maketh known.  Ah! happy the man who can look upon him and forgather with him and company with him before his death; and verily by Allah he is the Master of the Age and the one Wonder of the World.  Moreover, by the Almighty, O my lord, wert thou to see this lute fall into his hands, thou wouldst hear it converse in every language with the tongues of birds and beasts and of the sons of Adam:  and well nigh would the place dance ere he had improvised a word.  And he the horizons can make to joy and lovers with overlove can destroy, nor shall any after his decease such excellence of speech employ.”  All this, and Muhjat al-Kulub knew not who was sitting beside them as she went on to praise Ibrahim.  Hereupon he took the lute from her hand and smote it till thou hadst deemed that within the instrument lurked babes of the Jinns[FN#293] which were crying and wailing while spake the strings, and in fine King Yusuf imagined that the palace had upflown with them between heaven and earth.  And the handmaidens sang to his tunes in sore astonishment; when Ibrahim designed to talk but King Yusuf cut kin short and fell to saying poetry in these couplets,

“By the rights of our lord who shows ruth in extreme, * And Giver
     and Guide and boon Prophet we deem,
And by Ka’abah resplendent and all its site * And by Zemzem, Safa
     and the wall Hatim,
Lo! thou’rt hight Ibrahim, and suppose I say * Thee sooth, my
     wits thou must surely esteem: 
And thy face shows signalled with clearest eyne * Deliv’rance
     followed by Ya and Mim."[FN#294]

Now Ibrahim kept his secret and did not manifest himself to any, but presently he also improvised and spake in these words preserving the measure and rhyme,

“By him who chose Musa, the Speaker,[FN#295] by Him * who
     made[FN#296] Hashimite orphan select and supreme! 
Ibrahim am I not, but I deem this one * The Caliph who sits by
     Baghdadian stream;
Of his grace the heir of all eloquent arts * And no partner hath
     he in all gifts that beseem.”

And when Ibrahim had finished his verses, Yusuf said to him, “By the virtue of Almighty Allah, an I guess aright and my shot[FN#297] go not amiss, thou art Ibrahim the musician;” but the courtier retained his incognito and replied, “O my lord, Ibrahim is my familiar friend and I am a man of Al-Basrah who hath stolen from him sundry of his modes and airs for the lute and other instruments and I have the