Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/49

 Nur a I- Din Ali and the Damsel Ants al-Jalis. 29 tali walnut-tree, said to Ja'afar, " I will climb this tree, for its branches are near the lattices and so look in upon them." There- upon he mounted the tree and ceased not climbing from branch to branch, till he reached a bough which was right opposite one of the windows, and here he took seat and looked inside the palace. He saw a damsel and a youth as they were two moons (glory be to Him who created them and fashioned them !), and by them Shaykh Ibrahim seated cup in hand and saying, " O Princess of fair ones, drinking without music is nothing worth ; indeed I have heard a poet say : Round with big and little, the bowl and cup, o Take either that moon in his sheen hath crowned : Nor drink without music, for oft I've seen, o The horse drink best to the whistle's sound 1 When the Caliph saw this, the vein of wrath started up between his eyes and he came down and said to the Wazir, " O Ja'afar, never beheld I yet men of piety in such case ; so do thou mount this tree and look upon them, lest the blessings of the blest be lost to thee." Ja'afar, hearing the words of the Commander of the Faithful and being confounded by them, climbed to the tree-top and looking in, saw Nur al-Din and the damsel, and Shaykh Ibra- him holding in his hand a brimming bowl. At this sight he made sure of death and, descending, stood before the Commander of the Faithful, who said to him, " O Ja'afar, praise be to Allah who hath made us of those that observe external ordinances of Holy Law and hath averted from us the sin of disguising ourselves after the manner of hypocrites ! " 3 But Ja'afar could not speak a word for excess of confusion ; so the Caliph looked at him and said, " I wonder how they came hither, and who admitted them into my pavilion ! But aught like the beauty of this youth and this damsel my eyes never yet saw ! " " Thou sayest sooth, O our Lord the Sultan ! " replied Ja'afar (and he hoped to propitiate the Caliph Harun al-Rashid). Then quoth the Caliph, " O Ja'afar, let us both mount the branch opposite the window, that we may i.e. the Ski, cup-boy or cup-bearer. " Moon-faced," as I have shown elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic. He means we are " Zahirf," plain honest Moslems, not " Batini," gnostics (ecg& reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. T*i suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.