Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/180



"Since our Imam came forth from medicine, *         Which made him health and heartiness rewin,    There is no healing draught more sovereign *         Than well boiled wine this golden goblet in:    Then let him break the seal for him secured; *         'Tis best prescription after medicine [FN#227]

Now when the damsel entered, the physician Yohanná [FN#228] was with the Caliph, and as he read the couplets, he smiled and said, "By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, Fath is better versed than I in the art of healing: so let not the Prince of True Believers gainsay his prescription." Accordingly, the Caliph followed the recipe contained in the poetry and was made whole by the blessing of Allah and won his every wish. And among tales they tell is one of THE MAN'S DISPUTE WITH THE LEARNED WOMAN CONCERNING THE RELATIVE EXCELLENCE OF MALE AND FEMALE.

Quoth a certain man of learning, "I never saw amongst woman kind one wittier, and wiser, better read and by nature more generously bred; and in manners and morals more perfected than a preacher of the people of Baghdad, by name Sitt al-Mashá'ikh. [FN#229] It chanced that she came to Hamah city in the year of the Flight five hundred and sixty and one [FN#230]; and there delivered salutary exhortations to the folk from the professorial chair. Now there used to visit her house a number of students of divinity and persons of learning and polite letters, who would discuss with her questions of theology and dispute with her on controversial points. I went to her one day, with a friend of mine, a man of years and education; and when we had taken our seats,