So Ibn al-Kirnas bought her for five thousand golden
dinars and clothed her with other thousand. After which he carried her
to the Prince of True Believers, with whom she lay the night, and
who made trial of her in every kind of knowledge and accomplishment
and found her versed in all sorts of arts and sciences, having no
equal in her time. Her name was Kut al-Kulub and she was even as saith
the poet:
I fix my glance on her, whene'er she wends,
And nonacceptance of my glance breeds pain.
She favors graceful-necked gazelle at gaze,
And "Graceful as gazelle" to say we're fain.
On the morrow the Caliph sent for Ibn al-Kirnas, the jeweler, and
bade him receive ten thousand dinars to her price. And his heart was
taken up with the slave girl Kut al-Kulub and he forsook the Lady
Zubaydah bint al-Kasim, for all she was the daughter of his father's
brother, and he abandoned all his favorite concubines and abode a
whole month without stirring from Kut al-Kulub's side save to go to
the Friday prayers and return to her all in haste. This was grievous
to the lords of the realm and they complained thereof to the Wazir
Ja'afar the Barmecide, who bore with the Commander of the Faithful and
waited till the next Friday, when he entered the cathedral mosque and,
forgathering with the Caliph, related to him all that occurred to
him of extraordinary stories anent seld-seen love and lovers, with
intent to draw out what was in his mind.
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