Has sleep fled thee through musing on the fair?—
She has bestowed upon thee instead crazing meditation.
O Night! thou hast been long to the sick one;
He suffers through desire and loss of patience.
Thou hast delivered the lover to burning flames:
He is consumed as living coals consume.
The moon bears witness that I love—
That love for one fair as herself has subdued me.
I thought not of suffering on her account,
Nor recked I of it ere it smote me.
ʾAbd-Allâh continues: Then the voice broke, and I knew not whence it had come to me. So I remained motionless, when, lo! verily the weeping and
taines. Zizyphus Sylvestris, Shaw. Rhamnus Napeca, Forskal. This tree bears a small round fruit of much the same size, shape, and colour as a Siberian crab-apple. It is highly astringent, but is considered a delicious fruit by the Bedawîn, to whom its acidity is doubtless a pleasant change from their ordinarily dry food. A decoction of its leaves is used for washing dead bodies. This is one of the traditions called "húkmat taʾabbud," i.e., a precept of worship to be obeyed, but for which no reason has been assigned; in contradistinction to the "húkmat maʾanahu záhir," i.e., an order for which the reason is apparent. Of the latter class is the order that corpses should be washed in salt water, the reason being that they might thereby be longer preserved from turning to dust. Probably the astringent properties of the lotus were known to the Prophet, who was skilled in chemistry, and he ordered the decoction from these leaves to be used in places inland, where salt water was not procurable.
