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Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard and found a

vaulted doorway builded of hardest syenite [FN#462] inlaid with

sundry kinds of multi-coloured marble. Into this he walked and

wandered about the house and, throwing many a glance around, saw

the name of his brother, Nur al-Din, written in gold wash upon

the walls. So he went up to the inscription and kissed it and

wept and thought of how he had been separated from his brother

and had now lost him for ever, and he recited these couplets:-

"I ask of you from every rising sun, * And eke I ask when

flasheth levenlight: Restless I pass my nights in passion-pain, *

Yet ne'er I 'plain me of my painful plight; My love! if longer

last this parting throe * Little by little shall it waste my

sprite. An thou wouldst bless these eyne with sight of thee * One

day on earth, I crave none other sight: Think not another could

possess my mind * Nor length nor breadth for other love I find."