When it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abu Suwayd continued: "When I spake these words to the ancient dame she raised her head towards me and, opening wide her eyes, recited these two couplets,
'I dyed what years have dyed, but this my staining * Lasts not, while that of days is aye remaining: Days when beclad in gear of youth I fared, * Raked fore and aft by men with joy unfeigning.'
I cried, 'By Allah, favoured art thou for an old woman! How sincere art thou in thine after-pine for forbidden pleasures and how false is thy pretence of repentance from frowardness!'" And another tale is that of
THE EMIR ALI BIN TAHIR AND THE GIRL MUUNIS.
Once on a time was displayed for sale to Ali bin Mohammed bin Abdallah bin Táhir[
