At one time—at another—and now—and anon.—This use of different words, to vary the expression “at times,” is much affected by the author. Compare the Twelfth, in the description of Abû Zayd in the tavern.

Goodly attainments.—By is meant that by which one works, an instrument. In the saying of ‘Ali, “He makes use of the of religion in seeking the goods of the present world,” science or knowledge is meant; because thereby only is religion. The same meaning belongs to the word in the present passage. (Lane.)

Valued highly.—Compare the use of , in the Twenty-ninth.

With him I wiped away. The metre of these verses is , as already explained.

Some doubt from my heart.—Uncertainty on points of lan­guage and grammar.

Until the hand of want, etc.—These extravagant expressions are scarcely to be paralleled even in Ḥarîri. The second clause of the sentence is literally “The want of a bone urged him.” The word is applied to setting on a dog, and is therefore in keeping with the words “want of a bone.” When the words of a phrase are all in keeping with the metaphor, the metaphor is termed , otherwise it is . See note at page 8, De Sacy’s edition. It may be noticed that Ḥarîri says in the Durrah that can never be applied to a cup except when it has liquor in it.

After he was gone.—These lines, in the original, are a string of assonances, very ingenious and not unpleasing. The rhymes of and , and of and , present instances of what is called ; that is, the insertion into the body of a sentence or verse of two rhymed words, in order to gratify the hearing by the assonance. The term , like , is applied to a poem where the two hemistiches of each verse rhyme together, and there is no continuous rhyme throughout the poem. A familiar instance of this is the Alfîyeh of Ibn Mâlik; in Persian literature it has been preferred by the greatest poets. But in Arabic this “coupled” rhyme is more usually thrown in as an ornament in the body or of the verse. An instance of it, probably accidental, is given from the Koran, xxvii. 22, where the bird says to Solomon, (I have come to thee from Saba, with certain intelligence); also in the words of the Prophet Ta‘rîfât, p. 62. Examples of it so abound in Ḥarîri, that it is needless to quote them. In these verses there is also an instance of what is called or , which consists in the author making a more laboured rhyme at the end of his verse than he is obliged to do by the laws of prosody. If the author constrain himself to keep to a certain ridf or dakhîl, or to one particular letter or vowel before the rawî, he produces a more perfect and melodious rhyme. In this case the termina­tion of both lines with is an instance of such an elegance. Here the rawî, which is , is preceded in both verses by a dakhîl, namely, with kesr, and the ta’sîs which is . Furthermore, each hemistich of each verse closes with .

He was hidden from me.—This word is used to signify the disappearance of the moon during the last days of the month, when it is in conjunction with the sun.

Where my branch had sprouted.—His native town of Basra. For a similar expression see the Thirty-third Assembly, “Make known to us the dowḥah (some large tree) of thy branch.”

To produce what was in his wallet.—To make a display of his stores of learning.

The sagacity of his judgment.—The meaning of , as applied to David in the Koran, has been the subject of much controversy. From the context it would seem to mean the faculty of judging and settling disputes, or of perceiving the application to himself of the case which the angels put before him, (Koran, xxxviii. 19). Bayḍâwi says that the of litiga­tion is the discrimination of right from wrong; and of discourse the use of choice language, which gives the person addressed a true conception of the meaning, and in which the grammatical and rhetorical distinctions are fully observed. It may be ob­served that from this passage in the Koran is derived the strange idea of some Moslems, that the phrase , and the practice of prefacing a discourse with an initiatory invocation, was due to David, since is attributed to David, though, of course, as Bayḍâwi points out, not in the technical sense which the words afterwards assumed.

Abû ‘Obâdeh.—Welîd ibn ‘Obayd al Boḥtori, said by one autho­rity to be the seal, the last and the chief of the later poets, was born at Kufa at the beginning of the third century of the Hijra, and was of the tribe of Ṭay, as was Abû Temmâm Ḥabîb, the compiler of the Ḥamâseh. Hence they seem to have been called the two Ṭays (Anthologie Gram. Ar. p. 131). His poems are extant, and have still many readers. Abû ’l Faraj Al Isfahâni, cited by Sherîshi, says of him that he was versed in every kind of poetry, except satire; though his essays even in this were successful. Sherîshi gives several anecdotes of him, which it would be tedious to transcribe. He died in the year 283.

As though she smiled.—This verse is of the metre called , which is of the fourth circle, already described. The measure of the is It has four , the first of which has three . The first (for the normal form of the verse appears not to be used), is : that is the of is dropped by , which is the dropping of the last letter of a at the end of a foot, and then the is dropped by , which is the dropping of the fourth quiescent letter of a foot: the , after these two changes, becomes . The first to this is , losing the by as described and quiescing the by , which is the quiescing of the last letter of a at the end of a verse: after these two changes it becomes .

The measure of the verse quoted from Al Boḥtori is, accord­ingly, The tanwîn given in De Sacy’s edition is superfluous.

Of there enter into the verse quoted and , both of which have been explained; the first foot gives an instance of the former, the second foot of the latter.

Comparisons such as those contained in this verse are to be found even in the more ancient poets. Thus Ṭarafeh in his Mo‘allaḳah says:

She smiles from a dark red lip as when the white camomile flower shows itself from a moist spot in the sand: v. 8.

Thou hast taken for fat, etc.—These are two proverbial ex­pressions, introduced by Ḥarîri in accordance with his practice of imitating the talk of the desert. For the second of them, see Prov. Arab. II. 429.

My life a ransom.—These verses are in the , one of the most common and melodious of the ancient metres, and often dedicated to such themes. It is of the first circle like and , consisting of five-lettered and seven-lettered feet. Its normal measure is:

This, however, appears to be rarely used; the most common being , with a like itself; each hemistich closing with . This is the measure in the present case.

Of the there enter into this metre in and ; also and in being the union of and . Instances of all these licences may be seen in the two verses.

Some suspicions are a sin. Koran xlix. 12.

My saddle-bag.—Used in the same sense as “wallet” above. The is a bag for provisions bound behind the traveller on the camel. For its use in a figurative sense, by an early poet, see the Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays (Edition of McGuckin de Slane, page 49, line 9):