Whereupon the Lady of
Beauty drew him to her and he did likewise. Then he took her to his
embrace and found her a pearl unpierced, and he abaged her virginity
and had joyance of her youth in his virility; and she conceived by him
that very night. Then he laid his hand under her head and she did
the same and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's arms, as
a certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets:
Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told,
No envious churl shall smile on love ensouled.
Merciful Allah made no fairer sight
Than coupled lovers single couch doth hold,
Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own,
With pillowed forearms cast in finest mold.
And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of love,
Folk who would part them hammer steel ice-cold.
If a fair friend thou find who cleaves to thee,
Live for that friend, that friend in heart enfold.
O ye who blame for love us lover-kind,
Say, can ye minister to diseased mind?
This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al-Husn his
cousin, but as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain
asleep, he said to the Ifritah: "Arise, slip thee under the youth, and
let us carry him back to his place ere dawn overtake us, for the day
is near-hand.
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