ABU AL-ASWAD AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL
Abu al-Aswad bought a native-born slave-girl, who was blind of an
eye, and she pleased him; but his people decried her to him;
whereat he wondered and, turning the palms of his hands
upwards,[FN#114] recited these two couplets,
"They find me fault with her where I default ne'er find, *
Save haply that a speck in either eye may show:
But if her eyes have fault, of fault her form hath none, *
Slim-built above the waist and heavily made below."
And this is also told of
