He chose for them their clothes,
furniture, and jewels, with admirable judgment.
His good qualities, with the favour of the caliph, made the sons
of emirs, officers, and others of the first rank, to be always
about him. His house was the rendezvous of all the nobility of
the court. But, among the young lords who daily visited him,
there was one of whom he took more notice, and with whom he
contracted a particular friendship, called Aboulhassen Ali Ebn
Becar, originally of an ancient royal family of Persia. This
family had continued at Bagdad ever since the Mussul-men made a
conquest of that kingdom. Nature seemed to have taken pleasure to
endow this young prince with many of the rarest qualities both of
body and mind. His face was so very beautiful, his shape so fine,
and his physiognomy so prepossessing; that none could see him
without loving him immediately. When he spoke, he expressed
himself always in terms the most proper and well chosen, with a
new and agreeable turn, and his voice charmed all who heard him.
He had withal so much wit and judgment, that he thought and spoke
on every subject with admirable exactness. He was so reserved and
modest, that he advanced nothing till he had taken all possible
precautions to avoid giving any ground of suspicion that he
preferred his own opinion to that of others.
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