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Wind of the East, if thou pass by the land where my loved ones dwell, I pray, The fullest of greetings bear to them from me, their lover, and say
That I am the pledge of passion still and that my longing love And eke my yearning do overpass all longing that was aye.
Therewithal Queen Es Shuhba rejoiced and all who were present rejoiced also and admired her speech and fell to kissing her; and when she had made an end of her song, Queen Kemeriyeh said to her, ‘O my sister, ere thou go to thy palace, I would fain bring thee to look upon El Anca, daughter of Behram Gour, whom El Anca, daughter of the wind, carried off, and her beauty; for that there is not her match on the face of the earth.’ And Queen Es Shuhba said, ‘O Kemeriyeh, I [also] have a mind to see her.’ Quoth Kemeriyeh, ‘I saw her three years agone; but my sister Wekhimeh seeth her at all times, for that she is near unto her, and she saith that there is not in the world a fairer than she. Indeed, this Queen El Anca is become a byword for loveliness and proverbs are made upon her beauty and grace.’ And Wekhimeh said, ‘By the mighty inscription [on the seal-ring of Solomon], there is not her like in the world!’ Then said Queen Es Shuhba, ‘If it needs must be and the affair is as ye say, I will take Tuhfeh and go with her [to El Anca], so she may see her.’
So they all arose and repaired to El Anca, who abode in the Mountain Caf.[1] When she saw them, she rose to
- ↑ A fabulous mountain-range, believed by the Arabs to encompass the world and by which they are supposed to mean the Caucasus.
