'How shall this youth
descend,' replied he, 'seeing that he hath not strength to rise?'
With this she fell to sprinkling rose-water on Ali ben Bekkar,
till he came to himself, when Aboulhusn lifted him up and the
damsel stayed him. So they went down from the gallery and walked
on awhile, till they came to a little iron door, which the damsel
opened, and they found themselves on the Tigris' bank. Here they
sat down on a stone bench, whilst the girl clapped her hands and
there came up a man with a little boat, to whom said she, 'Carry
these two young men to the other bank.' So they all three entered
the boat and the man put off with them; and as they launched out
into the stream, Ali ben Bekkar looked back towards the Khalif's
palace and the pavilion and the garden and bade them farewell
with these verses:
I stretch forth a feeble hand to bid farewell to thee, With the
other upon my burning breast, beneath the heart of me.
But be not this the last of the love betwixt us twain And let not
this the last of my soul's refreshment be.
The damsel said to the boatman, 'Make haste with them.' So he
plied his oars swiftly till they reached the opposite bank, where
they landed, and she took lease of them, saying, 'It were my wish
not to leave you, but I can go no farther than this.
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