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the man denied himself and hid from him, till he was consumed with hunger. Night cccx.Then he betook himself to the bazaar, where he found a crowd of people, assembled in a ring round somewhat, and said in himself, ‘I wonder what ails the folk to crowd together thus? By Allah, I will not remove hence, till I see what is within yonder ring!’ So he made his way into the ring and found that the crowd was caused by a damsel exposed for sale. She was five feet high, slender of shape, rosy-cheeked and high-bosomed and surpassed all the people of her time in beauty and grace and elegance and perfection; even as saith one, describing her:
As she wished, she was created, after such a wise that lo! She in beauty’s mould was fashioned, perfect, neither less no mo’.
Loveliness itself enamoured of her lovely aspect is; Coyness decks her and upon her, pride and pudour sweetly show.
In her face the full moon glitters and the branch is as her shape; Musk her breath is, nor midst mortals is her equal, high or low.
’Tis as if she had been moulded out of water of pure pearls; In each member of her beauty is a very moon, I trow.
And her name was Zumurrud.
When Ali Shar saw her, he marvelled at her beauty and grace and said, ‘By Allah, I will not stir hence till I see what price this girl fetches and know who buys her!’ So he stood with the rest of the merchants, and they thought he had a mind to buy her, knowing the wealth he had inherited from his parents. Then the broker stood at the damsel’s head and said, ‘Ho, merchants! Ho, men of wealth! Who will open the biddings for this damsel, the mistress of moons, the splendid pearl, Zumurrud the Curtain-maker, the aim of the seeker and the delight of the desirous? Open the biddings, and on the opener be nor blame nor reproach.’
So one merchant said, ‘I bid five hundred dinars for her.’ ‘And ten,’ said another. ‘Six hundred,’ cried an old
