" So they went down into the city
upon their several occasions, this to sell, that to buy, another
to go to the bath and a fourth to visit the Mosque of the
Ommiades, whose like is not in the world. Agib also went into the
city to look about him, followed by an eunuch, carrying a knotted
cudgel of almond-tree wood, wherewith if one smote a camel, it
would not rise again. When the people of the city saw Agib's
beauty and symmetry (for he was a marvel of loveliness and
winning grace, blander than the Northern zephyr,[FN#67] sweeter
than limpid water to the thirsty and more delightful than
recovery to the sick), a great concourse of folk followed him,
whilst others ran on before and sat down in the road, against he
should come up, that they might gaze on him, till, as Fate would
have it, the eunuch stopped before the shop of Bedreddin Hassan.
Now the cook was dead and Bedreddin, having been formally adopted
by him, had succeeded to his shop and property; and in the course
of the twelve years that had passed over him, his beard had grown
and his understanding ripened. When his son and the eunuch
stopped before him, he had just finished preparing a mess of
pomegranate-seed, dressed with sugar; and when he looked at Agib
and saw how beautiful he was, his heart throbbed, blood drew to
blood and his bowels yearned to him. So he called to him and
said, "O my lord, O thou that hast gotten the mastery of my heart
and my soul, thou to whom my bowels yearn, wilt thou not enter my
shop and solace my heart by eating of my food?" And the tears
welled up, uncalled, from his eyes, and he bethought him of his
former estate and compared it with his present condition.
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