Inhabitants of Baghdad

They asked one of the inhabitants of Baghdad his opinion of handsome youths. He replied, “No good is to be found amongst them as long as they appear delicate, for then they are insolent ; but when they become rough, they are courteous ; or, in other words, whilst handsome and delicate, their behaviour is rude ; and when they become rough, they are kind and friendly. The youth, whilst his face continues smooth, has bitter words and a morose disposition; when his beard appears and he is arrived at manhood, he mixes with society and cultivates friendship.”

Place with a beautiful girl

They asked a learned man, “ If a man is sitting in a secret place with a beautiful girl, the doors shut and the rivals asleep, the passions, inflamed and lust raging, (as the Arabs say, 4 The dates ripe and the watchman not hindering,’) whether he thought his virtue would protect him ? ” He replied, “Ifhe escapes from the beautiful girl, he will not escape from slanderers.”

If the man has not suffered his passions to

overcome his virtue, yet the suspicious world will think ill of him. One may

perchance restrain his passions, but he will not be able to curb men’s tongues.

Cage with a parrot

They shut up a crow in the same cage with a parrot, who, distressed at the other’s ugly appearance, was saying, ‘What is this detestable countenance, this odious form, this cursed object with unpolished manners? Thou crow of the desert, would to God we were as far asunder as the east is from the west. Whosoever should behold your face when he is rising, it would convert a goodly morning into a dark evening. Such an ill- fated wretch should have a companion like yourself; but where in the world can your equal be found? ”

What is the most strange, the crew was equally distressed by the society of the parrot, and lamenting his fate, complained of the vicissitudes of Fortune, and rubbing the claws of sorrow one against the other, was saying, “ What ill luck, Avah mean fate, what a reverse of fortune ! It suited my dignity to be strutting on a garden wall in company with another crow. It is sufficient imprisonment for a holy man that he should be compelled to associate with profligates. How far have I sinned, that in punishment thereof my life should be spent in a company with such a worthless conceited prattler? No one will approach a wall on which your picture is painted. If you had admittance into paradise, everyone would prefer hell to your company.”

I have brought this example to show, that

how much sever men of understanding may despise the ignorant, these are a

hundred times more distressed in the company of the wise.

A devotee being at a singing party in

company with some profligates, one of the beauties of Balk said to him, “If you

are displeased don’t look sour, for you are bitter enough to us already. In an

assemblage of roses and tulips, you resemble a dry stick placed in the midst; or

like a contrary wind, or intense coldness; or driven snow or frozen ice.”