Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/175

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ND resembling the foregoing tale concerning love and the concealment of passion, together with the plain proof of its discovery, is the following story, which a certain person of those who are well-to-do used to relate.

One day while sitting in my house, behold! a servant came in bringing a letter, and said, "A man at the door gave me this." So I opened it, and behold! it contained the following lines:

So I exclaimed, "A lover, by Allâh!" and said to the servant, "Go out and bring him to me." And he went out, but saw no one: and this behaviour astonished me.

So I summoned all the slave-girls, both those who