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house of the Lord of the Worlds!” Quoth she, “Why wilt thou forbid me to drink thereof in thy house?” “Because,” answered he, “it is unlawful.” “O elder,” rejoined she, “God hath forbidden [the eating of] blood and carrion and hog’s flesh. Tell me, are grapes and honey lawful or unlawful?” Quoth he, “They are lawful;” and she said, “This is the juice of grapes and the water of honey.” But he answered, “Leave this thy talk, for thou shall never drink wine in my house.” “O Sheikh,” rejoined she, “folk eat and drink and enjoy themselves and we are of the number of the folk and God is very forgiving, clement.”[1] Quoth he, “This is a thing that may not be.” And she said, “Hast thou not heard what the poet saith....?” And she recited the following verses:
O son of Simeon, give no ear to other than my say. How bitter from the convent ’twas to part and fare away!
Ay, and the monks, for on the Day of Palms a fawn there was Among the servants of the church, a loveling blithe and gay.
By God, how pleasant was the night we passed, with him for third! Muslim and Jew and Nazarene, we sported till the day.
The wine was sweet to us to drink in pleasance and repose, And in a garden of the garths of Paradise we lay,
Whose streams beneath the myrtle’s shade and cassia’s welled amain And birds made carol jubilant from every blossomed spray.
Quoth he, what while from out his hair the morning glimmered white, “This, this is life indeed, except, alas! it doth not stay.”
- ↑ Koran ii. 168.
