She replied:
A person may inspire admiration, yet be ugly—
May be deformed in feature and base by birth.
Thou mayst be struck with delight at his voice,
Yet may he doubly trace his birth to slaves.
"Have done with thy nonsense!" cried Sulaimân. "By Allâh! he seems to have taken possession of thy heart. Here, slave! bring Sinân to me."
Then Zhalfâ called her servant, and said to him, "If thou canst reach Sinân and give him warning before the messenger of the Commander of the Faithful, ten thousand dirhems are thine, and thou art free to do the will of Allâh."
So the two messengers set off, but he bearing the message of the Commander of the Faithful arrived first. And when he had returned with Sinân, Sulaimân asked, "O Sinân! have I not forbidden thee from thus acting?"
"O Commander of the Faithful!" he replied, "numbers overcame me, and I am the slave of the Commander of the Faithful, and the plant grown by his favour; therefore if it seems well unto the Commander of the Faithful to pardon me, let him do it."
So Sulaimân said, "Verily, I have forgiven thee;
