Ishak of Mosul, who improvises the piece, calls it “so difficult and so rare, that it went nigh to deaden the quick and to quicken the dead”; indeed, the native poets consider the metre Madid as the most difficult of all, and it is scarcely ever attempted by later writers.  This accounts for its rare occurrence in The Nights, where only two more instances are to be found, Mac.  N. ii. 244 and iii. 404.

The second and third circle will best be spoken of together, as the Wafir and Kamil have a natural affinity to the Hazaj and Rajaz.  Let us revert to the line:—­

U - - - | U - - - | U - - |
Akamu ’l-wajda fi kalbi wa saru.

Translated, as it were, into the language of the Prosodists it will be:—­

          Mafa’ilun[FN#456] ’Mafa’ilun Fa’ulun,

and this, standing by itself, might prima facie be taken for a line of the Hazaj (iii.  C. I), with the third Mafa’ilun shortened by Hafz (see above) into Mafa’i for which Fa’ulun would be substituted.  We have seen (p. 247) that and how the foot Mufa’alatun can change into Mafa’ilun, and if in any poem which otherwise would belong to the metre Hazaj, the former measure appears even in one foot only along with the latter, it is considered to be the original measure, and the poem counts no longer as Hazaj but as Wafir.  In the piece now under consideration, it is the second Bayt where the characteristic foot of the Wafir first appears:—­

U - - - | U - U U | U - - |
Naat ’anni’l-rubu’u wa sakiniha

U - U U - | U - U U - | U - - |
Wa kad ba’uda ’l-mazaru fa-la mazaru.

Anglice (vol. iii. 296):—­

Far lies the camp and those who camp therein; * Far is her tent
     shrine where I ne’er shall tent.

It must, however, be remarked that the Hazaj is not in use as a hexameter, but only with an ’Aruz majzuah or shortened by one foot.  Hence it is only in the second ’Aruz of the Wafir, which is likewise majzuah, that the ambiguity as to the real nature of the metre can arise;[FN#457] and the isolated couplet:—­

U - - - | U - - -  | U - - |
Yaridu ’l-mar-u an yu’ta munahu

U - - - | U - - -  | U - - |
Wa yaba ’llahu illa ma yuridu

Man wills his wish to him accorded be, * But Allah naught accords
     save what he wills (vol. iv. 157),

being hexametrical, forms undoubtedly part of a poem in Wafir although it does not contain the foot Mufa’alatun at all.  Thus the solitary instance of Hazaj in The Nights is Abu Nuwas’ abomination, beginning with:—­

U - - -  | U - - - |

          Fa-la tas’au ila ghayri

U - - -  | U - - - |
Fa-’indi ma’dinu ’l-khayri (Mac.  N. ii. 377).

Steer ye your steps to none but me * Who have a mine of luxury
     (vol. v. 65).

If in the second ’Aruz of the Wafir, Maf’ailun (U — — -) is further shortened to Mafa’ilun (U — U -), the metre resembles the second ’Aruz of Rajaz, where, as we have seen, the latter foot can, by licence, take the place of the normal Mustaf’ilun (- — U -).