50 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



But romantic stories of the association of the queen of 

 flowers with the prince of birds are many, and the reader 

 may easily find more of them. In a legend told by the 

 Persian poet Attarall the birds once appeared before 

 King Solomon and complained that they could not sleep 

 because of the nightly wailings of the bulbul, who ex- 

 cused himself on the plea that his love for the rose was 

 the cause of irrepressible grief. This is the tradition to 

 which Byron alludes in The Giaour: 



The rose o'er crag or vale, 

 Sultana of the nightingale, 



The maid for whom his melody, 

 His thousand songs, are heard on high, 

 Blooms blushing to her lover's tale — 

 His queen, the garden queen, the rose, 

 Unbent by winds, unchilled by snows. 



