Then she took to mocking him, and laughing at him, with her nurse, el-Hîfâ. And by-and-by she said, "O my nurse! open me the curtains of the litter, that I may smell the perfume of the breeze." So the nurse opened them, and Hind and el-Hajjâj found themselves face to face. And she mocked him, but he recited, saying:
Spite of thy jeering now, O Hind! for how long a time
Have I forsaken thee, like a thrown-off garment?
But she answered, saying:
It troubled me not when bereft of high estate,
Through what I had lost of wealth and rank;
For wealth may be acquired and honour recalled,
If Allâh preserve the soul from death.
And she continued deriding and laughing, until they drew nigh unto the Khalîfah's country. And when they came near the town, she dropped some dinârs out of her hand on to the ground, and then cried, "Ho, cameleer! we have let some dirhems fall; pick them up for us." So el-Hajjâj looked on the ground, but seeing only dinârs, said, "They are dinârs." "Not so," said she; "they are dirhems." He repeated, They are dinârs." Whereupon she exclaimed, Allâh be praised! Dirhems fell from our hand, and Allâh has replaced them by dinârs!"
