Presently
they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he
drank. Then he passed on the cup to me, and I kissed the ground and
drank and wrote on it:
With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue,
And pain and patience gave for fellowship.
Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high
And honeydew from lips of maid I sip!
The King read my verse and said with a sigh, "Were these gifts in
a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!" Then he
called for the chessboard, and said, "Say, wilt thou play with me?"
and I signed with my head, "Yes." Then I came forward and ordered
the pieces and played with him two games, both of which I won. He
was speechless with surprise, so I took the pen case and, drawing
forth a reed, wrote on the board these two couplets:
Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong day,
Nor is their battling ever finished
Until, when darkness girdeth them about,
The twain go sleeping in a single bed.
The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his
eunuch, "O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn, and say her,
'Come, speak the King, who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in
seeing this right wondrous ape!"' So the eunuch went out, and
presently returned with the lady, who when she saw me veiled her
face and said: "O my father, hast thou lost all sense of honor? How
cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?"
"O Sitt al-Husn," said he, "no man is here save this little foot
page and the eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father.
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