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Were it a word sent down from God; for even the Pentateuch Hath falsified and garbled been of this and th’ other wight.[1]
Whilst, as for lies, how many were of folk before us told! Joseph to Jacob was traduced and blackened in his sight.
Yea, for the slanderer and myself and thee, an awful day Of standing up shall come, when God to judgment all shall cite.
Then she sealed the letter and gave it to me. I took it and carried it to the house of Jubeir ben Umeir, whom I found absent hunting. So I sat down, to wait for him, and presently he returned; and when I saw him come riding up, my wit was confounded by his beauty ands grace. As soon as he saw me sitting at the door, he dismounted and coming up to me, saluted and embraced me; and meseemed I embraced the world and all that therein is. Then he carried me into his house and seating me on his own couch, called for food. So they brought a table of khelenj[2] wood of Khorassan, with feet of gold, whereon were all manner of meats, fried and roasted and the like. Night cccxxx.So I seated myself at the table and examining it, found the following verses engraved upon it:
Weep for the cranes that erst within the porringers did lie And for the stews and partridges evanished heave a sigh!
Mourn for the younglings of the grouse; lament unceasingly, As, for the omelettes and the fowls browned in the pan, do I.
How my heart yearneth for the fish that, in its different kinds, Upon a paste of wheaten flour, lay hidden in the pie!
Praised be God for the roast meat, as in the dish it lay, With pot-herbs, soaked in vinegar, in porringers hard by,
And eke the rice with buffaloes’ milk dressed and made savoury, Wherein the hands were plunged and arms were buried bracelet high!
O soul, I rede thee patient be, for God is bountiful: What though thy fortunes straitened be, His succour’s ever nigh.
- ↑ The Muslims accuse the Jews of having corrupted the Pentateuch and others of their sacred books, even as the Christians the Gospels (see Vol. II. page 149, note), by expunging or altering the passages foretelling the coming of Mohammed.
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 135, note 2.
