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Drink and fare well and health attend thee still. This drink indeed’s a cure for every ill.
He took the cup in his hand and bowed and returned thanks, reciting the following verses:
Quaff not the cup except with one who is of trusty stuff, One who is true of thought and deed and eke of good descent.
Wine’s like the wind, that, if it breathe on perfume, smells as sweet, But, if o’er carrion it pass, imbibes its evil scent.
And again:
Drink not of wine except at the hands of a maiden fair, Who, like unto thee and it, is joyous and debonair.
Then he kissed their hands and drank and was merry with wine and swayed from side to side and recited the following verses:
Hither, by Allah, I conjure thee! Goblets that full of the grape juice be!
And brim up, I prithee, a cup for me, For this is the water of life, perdie!
Then the cateress filled the cup and gave it to the portress, who took it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Then she filled again and gave it to the eldest, who filled another cup and handed it to the porter. He gave thanks and drank and recited the following verses:
It is forbidden us to drink of any blood Except it be of that which gushes from the vine.
So pour it out to me, an offering to thine eyes, To ransom from thy hands my soul and all that’s mine.
Then he turned to the eldest lady, who was the mistress of the house, and said to her, ‘O my lady, I am thy slave and thy servant and thy bondman!’ And repeated the following verses:
There is a slave of all thy caves now standing at thy gate Who ceases not thy bounties all to sing and celebrate.
May he come in, O lady fair, to gaze upon thy charms? Desire and I from thee indeed may never separate.
And she said to him, ‘Drink, and health and prosperity
