[Meeting her at a feast, he addressed her in verse:—­]

The lovely virgin has struck my heart with the arrow of a glance, for which there is no cure.  Sometimes she wishes for a feast in the sandhills, like a fawn whose eyes are full of magic.  She moves; I should say it was the branch of the Tamarisk that waves its branches to the southern breeze.  She approaches; I should say it was the frightened fawn, when a calamity alarms it in the waste.

When Ibla heard from Antar this description of her charms, she was in astonishment.  But Antar continued in this state for days and nights, his love and anguish ever increasing.

     [Antar resolves to be either tossed upon the spear-heads or
     numbered among the noble; and he wanders into the plain of
     lions.]

As soon as Antar found himself in it, he said to himself, Perhaps I shall now find a lion, and I will slay him.  Then, behold a lion appeared in the middle of the valley; he stalked about and roared aloud; wide were his nostrils, and fire flashed from his eyes; the whole valley trembled at every gnash of his fangs—­he was a calamity, and his claws more dreadful than the deadliest catastrophe—­thunder pealed as he roared—­vast was his strength, and his force dreadful—­broad were his paws, and his head immense.  Just at that moment Shedad and his brothers came up.  They saw Antar address the lion, and heard the verses that he repeated; he sprang forward like a hailstorm, and hissed at him like a black serpent—­he met the lion as he sprang and outroared his bellow; then, giving a dreadful shriek, he seized hold of his mouth with his hand, and wrenched it open to his shoulders, and he shouted aloud—­the valley and the country round echoed back the war.

     [Those who were watching were astonished at his prowess, and
     began to fear Antar.  The horsemen now set off to attack the
     tribe of Temeem, leaving the slaves to guard the women.]

Antar was in transports on seeing Ibla appear with the other women.  She was indeed like an amorous fawn; and when Antar was attending her, he was overwhelmed in the ocean of his love, and became the slave of her sable tresses.  They sat down to eat, and the wine-cups went merrily round.  It was the spring of the year, when the whole land shone in all its glory; the vines hung luxuriantly in the arbors; the flowers shed around ambrosial fragrance; every hillock sparkled in the beauty of its colors; the birds in responsive melody sang sweetly from each bush, and harmony issued from their throats; the ground was covered with flowers and herbs; while the nightingales filled the air with their softest notes.