Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/57

39 And as saith another:

As he gazed upon her, she chanced to look up and saw him, whereupon her face changed and she said to her women, ‘Sing ye till I come back to you.’ Then, taking up a knife half a cubit long, she made towards him, saying, ‘There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme!’

When Ibrahim saw this, he [well-nigh] lost his wits; but, when she drew near him and her eyes fell upon his face, the knife dropped from her hand, and she exclaimed, ‘Glory to Him who turneth hearts!’ Then said she to him, ‘O youth, be of good cheer, for thou art safe from that thou fearest!’ Whereupon Ibrahim fell to weeping and she to wiping away his tears with her hand and saying, ‘O youth, tell me who thou art, and what brought thee hither.’ He kissed the earth before her and clung to her skirt; and she said, ‘No harm shall come to thee; for, by Allah, no male hath ever filled mine eyes but thyself! Tell me, then, who thou art.’

So he told her his story from first to last, whereat she marvelled and said to him, ‘O my lord, I conjure thee by Allah, tell me if thou be Ibrahim ben el Khesib?’ ‘I am,’ answered he, and she threw herself upon him, saying, ‘O my lord, it was thou madest me averse from men; for, when I heard that there was in the land of Egypt a youth than whom there was no goodlier on the face of the earth, I fell in love with thee by report and my heart became enamoured of thee, for that which was told me of thy