Now the season of pilgrimage to Mecca draws nigh, and it is thought that a visit to the holy shrine and the waters of the Zemzem[120] might cure his frenzy.  Accordingly Majnun, weak and helpless, is conveyed to Mecca in a litter.  Most fervently his sorrowing father prays in the Kaaba for his recovery, but all in vain, and they return home.  Again Majnun escapes to the desert, whence his love-plaints, expressed in eloquent verse, find their way to Layla, who contrives to reply to them, also in verse, assuring her lover of her own despair, and of her constancy.

  [120] The sacred well in the Kaaba at Mecca, which, according
        to Muslim legends, miraculously sprang up when Hagar and
        her son Ishmael were perishing in the desert from thirst.

One day a gallant young chief, Ibn Salam, chances to pass near the dwelling of Layla, and, seeing the beauteous maiden among her companions, falls in love with her, and straightway asks her in marriage of her parents.  Layla’s father does not reject the handsome and wealthy suitor, who scatters his gold about as if it were mere sand, but desires him to wait until his daughter is of proper age for wedlock, when the nuptials should be duly celebrated; and with this promise Ibn Salam departs.

Meanwhile, Noufal, the chief in whose land Majnun has taken up his abode, while hunting one day comes upon the wretched lover, and, struck with his appearance, inquires the cause of his distress.  Noufal conceives a warm friendship for Majnun, and sends a messenger to Layla’s father to demand her in marriage with his friend.  But the damsel’s parent scornfully refused to comply, and Noufal then marches with his followers against him.  A battle ensues, in which Noufal is victorious.  The father of Layla then comes to Noufal, and offers submission; but he declares that rather than consent to his daughter’s union with Majnun he would put her to death before his face.  Seeing the old man thus resolute, Noufal abandons his enterprise and returns to his own country.

And now Ibn Salam, having waited the appointed time, comes with his tribesmen to claim the hand of Layla; and, spite of her tears and protestations, she is married to the wealthy young chief.  Years pass on—­weary years of wedded life to poor Layla, whose heart is ever true to her wandering lover.  At length a stranger seeks out Majnun, and tells him that his beloved Layla wishes to have a brief interview with him, near her dwelling.  At once the frantic lover speeds towards the rendezvous; but when Layla is informed of his arrival, her sense of duty overcomes the passion of her life, and she resolves to forego the dangerous meeting, and poor Majnun departs without having seen his darling.  Henceforth he is a constant dweller in the desert, having for his companions the beasts and birds of the wilderness—­his clothes in tatters, his hair matted, his body wasted to a shadow, his bare feet lacerated with thorns.