The Caliph Harun al-Rashid loved the Lady Zubaydah with exceeding love and laid out a pleasure garden for her. In it he made a great tank and set a screen of trees all around, and led water from all sides. The trees grew and interlaced over the basin so densely that one could go in and wash without being seen by any, because of the thickness of the foliage. One day, Queen Zubaydah entered the garden and, coming to the swimming bath, —

When it was the Three Hundred and Eighty sixth night

But he knew not what to say next, so he sent for Abu Nowas and said to him, "Make me a piece of verse commencing with this line." "I hear and obey," replied the poet, and in the twinkling of an eye he extemporised these couplets:

"I looked on her with longing eyne And grew anew my old repine For the gazelle, who captured me Where the two lotus trees incline: There was the water poured on it From ewer of the silvern mine; And seen me she had hidden it But 'twas too plump for fingers fine. Would Heaven that I were on it, An hour, or better two hours, li'en.

Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Poets. 77

Thereupon the Commander of the Faithful smiled and made him a handsome present, and he went away rejoicing. And I have heard another story of