me with his fire.”  Quoth El Muradi, “A truce to this talk!” And Ahmed said, “If ye do with him aught, I will acquaint the Commander of the Faithful.”  “How, then, shall we do with him?” asked they; and he answered, “Let us deposit him in prison and I will be answerable to you for his provision; so shall we be quit of his blood, for indeed he is wrongfully used.”  So they took him up and casting him into the Prison of Blood,[FN#13]went away.

Meanwhile, they carried the damsel into the Commander of the Faithful and she pleased him; so he assigned her a lodging of the apartments of choice.  She abode in the palace, eating not neither drinking and ceasing not from weeping night nor day, till, one night, the Khalif sent for her to his sitting-chamber and said to her, “O Sitt el Milah, be of good heart and cheerful eye, for I will make thy rank higher than [any of] the concubines and thou shall see that which shall rejoice thee.”  She kissed the earth and wept; whereupon the Khalif called for her lute and bade her sing.  So she improvised and sang the following verses, in accordance with that which was in her heart: 

Say, by the lightnings of thy teeth and thy soul’s pure desire,
     Moan’st thou as moan the doves and is thy heart for doubt on
     fire? 
How many a victim of the pangs of love-liking hath died!  Tired is
     my patience, but of blame my censors never tire.

When she had made an end of her song, she cast the lute from her hand and wept till she swooned away, whereupon the Khalif bade carry her to her chamber.  Now he was ravished with her and loved her with an exceeding love; so, after awhile, he again commanded to bring her to his presence, and when she came, he bade her sing.  Accordingly, she took the lute and spoke forth that which was in her heart and sang the following verses: 

What strength have I solicitude and long desire to bear?  Why art
     thou purposed to depart and leave me to despair? 
Why to estrangement and despite inclin’st thou with the spy?  Yet
     that a bough[FN#14] from side to side incline[FN#15] small
     wonder ’twere. 
Thou layst on me a load too great to bear, and thus thou dost But
     that my burdens I may bind and so towards thee fare.

Then she cast the lute from her hand and swooned away; so she was carried to her chamber and indeed passion waxed upon her.  After a long while, the Commander of the Faithful sent for her a third time and bade her sing.  So she took the lute and sang the following verses: 

O hills of the sands and the rugged piebald plain, Shall the
     bondman of love win ever free from pain! 
I wonder, shall I and the friend who’s far from me Once more be
     granted of Fate to meet, we twain! 
Bravo for a fawn with a houri’s eye of black, Like the sun or the
     shining moon midst the starry train! 
To lovers, “What see ye?” he saith, and to hearts of stone, “What
     love ye,” quoth he, “[if to love me ye disdain?”]
I supplicate Him, who parted us and doomed Our separation, that
     we may meet again.