70 
C. J. Lyall —The J\Io l aJIaqah of lehiS ', with the [Xo. 1, 
O Abu Wahb, may God requite thee with good ! 
we have slaughtered them : now give us to eat the tlierid ! 
Renew thy gifts ! verily the generous man gives again and again, 
and my assurance is that thou wilt certainly give again/’ 
And Lebid said to her—“ Thou wouldst have done verv well indeed if 
thou hadst only not asked him to give thee more to eat.” She said—“ Xay, 
but kings never count it a shame that men should ask of them.” He an¬ 
swered—“ Yerily, 0 my little daughter, in this thou art most of all a poet !’* 
Ahmed ibn ‘Abd-el-‘Aziz informed me that he had been told bv ‘Omar 
• J 
ibn Shebbeh, who heard it from Mohammed ibn ‘Imran ed-Dabbi, who was 
told by el-Qasim ibn Ya‘la, who had it from el-Mufaddal ed-Dabbi, that 
el-Farezdaq 23 one day chanced to pass by the mosque of the Benu Uqeysir, 
where there was a man who was reciting some verses of Lebid’s among which 
was the following— 
“ The torrents have scored afresh the traces of the tents, as though 
they were lines of writing in a book which the pens make new 
again.’’ 
And el-Farezdaq prostrated himself. And they asked him—“ What is 
this, O Abu Firas ?” he answered, “ Ye know the prostration which is the 
due of the Qur’an, and I know the prostration which is the due of song.” 
Isma‘il ibn Yunus the Shi‘i states that he heard from ‘Omar ibn Sheb¬ 
beh, who had it from Ibn-el-Bawwab, that the Khalifeh el-Mo'tasim 29 one 
day was sitting at a wine-party, when one of the singers sang— 
“ The sons of el-‘Abbas know not how to sav no : 
ml 
Yes rises lightly to their tongues ; 
Their mildness adds lustre to their noble strain— 
thus is mildness the ornament of generosity.” 
El-Mo‘tasim said—“ I do not know these verses—whose are they 
They said “ Lebid’s.” “ Why,” said the Khalifeh, “ what had Lebid to do 
with the sons of el-‘Abbas ?” The singer replied—“ What Lebid said was— 
‘ The sons of er-Rayyan know not how to say ?w.’ 
It is I that put el-‘Abbas in place of er-Rayyan.” And el-Mo‘tasim praised 
and rewarded him. Then the Khalifeh, who had a great admiration for the 
poems of Lebid, said—“ Who among you can recite his poem beginning— 
‘ We wither away : but they wane not, the stars that rise on high’ ?” 
And one of those that sat with him said “ I.” He said “ Recite it to me.” 
And he began— 80 
“We wither away : but they wane not, the stars that rise on high, 
and the hills endure, and the mighty towers, though we be gone. 
I dwelt under the shade of a house that all men sought, 
and there has left me in Arbed a neighbour that helped me well.” 
