She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the handmaids answered the man of Al-Yaman, "'We hear and we obey!' Accordingly the blonde rose first and, pointing at the black girl, said to her: 'Out on thee, blackamoor! It is told by tradition that whiteness saith, 'I am the shining light, I am the rising moon of the fourteenth night. My hue is patent and my brow is resplendent and of my beauty quoth the poet,'
'White girl with softly rounded polished cheeks * As if a pearl
concealed by Beauty's boon:
Her stature Alif-like;[1] her smile like Mím[2] * And
o'er her eyes two brows that bend like Nún.[3]
'Tis as her glance were arrow, and her brows * Bows ever bent to
shoot Death-dart eftsoon:
If cheek and shape thou view, there shalt thou find * Rose,
myrtle, basil and Narcissus wone.
Men wont in gardens plant and set the branch, * How many garths
thy stature-branch cloth own!'
'So my colour is like the hale and healthy day and the newly culled orange spray and the star of sparkling ray;[4] and indeed quoth Almighty Allah, in His precious Book, to his prophet Moses (on whom be peace!), Put thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, without hurt.'[5] And again He saith, But they whose faces shall become white, shall be in the mercy of Allah; therein shall they remain forever.'[6] My colour is a sign, a miracle, and my loveliness supreme and my beauty a term extreme. It is on the like of me that raiment showeth fair and fine and to the like of me that hearts incline. Moreover, in whiteness are many excellences; for instance, the snow falleth white from heaven,
- ↑ A girl is called "Alfiyyah " = A-shaped.
- ↑ i.e. the medial-form of m.
- ↑ i.e. the inverted n.
- ↑ It may also mean a "Sevigné of pearls."
- ↑ Koran xxvii. 12. This was one of the nine "signs" to wicked "Pharaoh." The "hand of Moses" is a symbol of power and ability (Koran vii. 105). The whiteness was supernatural-beauty, not leprosy of the Jews (Exod. iv. 6); but brilliancy, after being born red or black: according to some commentators, Moses was a negro.
- ↑ Koran iii. 103; the other faces become black. This explains I have noticed the use of the phrases in blessing and cursing.
