Abu al-Ayná said, "There were in our street two women, one of whom had for lover a man and the other a beardless youth. They foregathered one night on the terrace roof of a house adjoining mine, knowing not that I was near. The boy's lover said to the other, 'O my sister, how can you bear with patience the harshness of your lover's beard as it falls on your breast, when he kisses you and his mustaches rub your cheek and lips?' Replied the other, 'Silly that you are! What adorns the tree save its leaves and the cucumber but its warts? Did you ever see in the world anything uglier than a bald head devoid of its beard? Know you not that the beard is to men as the sidelocks to women, and what is the difference between chin and cheek? Know you not that Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) has created an angel in Heaven who says: 'Glory be to Him who ornaments men with beards and women with long hair.' So, were the beard not as comely as the tresses, it had not been coupled with them, O silly! How shall I give myself to a boy who will finish long before I can finish and forestall me in the exhaustion of his manhood, and leave a man who, when he takes breath, fits himself close and when he enters goes leisurely, and when he has done repeats, and when he pushes presses hard, and as often as he withdraws, returns?' The boy's lover was edified by her speech and said, 'I forswear my lover by the lord of the Ka'abah!'" And amongst tales there is one of