Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/77

65 So he mounted a mule and the other young men mounted mules and asses, and they all rode till they came to a garden, wherein was all the soul desireth and that charmeth the eye. It was high walled and had a vaulted gateway, with a portico like a saloon and a sky-blue door, as it were one of the gates of Paradise. Moreover, the name of the door-keeper was Rizwan, and over the gate were trained a hundred trellises of grapes of various colours, the red like coral, the black like negroes’ faces and the white like pigeons’ eggs, growing in clusters and singly, even as saith of them the poet:

And as saith another:

Then they entered the arbour [that led into the garden] and saw there the gate-keeper sitting, as he were Rizwan, guardian of Paradise, and on the door were written these verses:

VOL. VIII.