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Zubeideh, saying, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, I would have thee do me a favour and heal my heart and accept my intercession and reject not my word, but go forthright to the Lady Zubeideh’s lodging.’ Now this talk befell after he had stripped himself naked and she also had put off her clothes; and he said, ‘Thou shouldst have named this before we stripped ourselves naked.’ But she answered, saying, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, I did this not but in accordance with the saying of the poet in the following verses:
All intercessions come and all alike do ill succeed, Save Tuhfeh’s, daughter of Merjan, for that, in very deed,
The intercessor who to thee herself presenteth veiled Is not her like who naked comes with thee to intercede.’
When the Khalif heard this, her speech pleased him and he strained her to his bosom. Then he went forth from her and locked the door upon her, as before; whereupon she took the book and sat looking in it awhile. Presently, she laid it down and taking the lute, tightened its strings. Then she smote thereon, after a wondrous fashion, such as would have moved inanimate things [to delight], and fell to singing marvellous melodies and chanting the following verses:
Rail not at the vicissitudes of Fate, For Fortune still spites those who her berate.
Be patient under its calamities, For all things have an issue soon or late.
