A doctor came to me one day and took my hand and pulse, when I said to him Let
     go my hand, the fire’s in my heart. 
He said, Drink syrup of the rose and mix it well with water of the tongue but
     tell it not to anyone: 
I said, The syrup of the rose is quite well known to me; it is the water of the
     cheek that breaks my very heart;
But can it be that I can get the water of the tongue that I may cool the burning
     fire that within me dwells? 
The doctor said, Thou art in love, I said Yes to him, and said he to me, Its
     remedy is to have the body here.

Then when Attaf went in to him after the end of the recitation he sat down at the head of the bed and asked him about his condition and what had been perscribed for him by the Hakim.  Ja’afar said, O my lord, he wrote for me a paper which is under the pillow.  Attaf put out his hand, took the paper and read it and found upon it written:—­“In the name of God the Curer—­To be taken, with the aid and blessing of God, 3 miskals of pure presence of the beloved unmixed with morsels of absence and fear of being watched:  plus, 3 miskals of a good meeting cleared of any grain of abandonment and rupture:  plus, 2 okes of pure friendship and discretion deprived of the wood of separation.  Then take some extract of the incense of the kiss, the teeth and the waist, 2 miskals of each; also take 100 kisses of pomegranate rubbed and rounded, of which 50 small ones are to be sugared, 30 pigeon-fashion and 20 after the fashion of little birds.  Take of Aleppine twist and sigh of Al-Iraq 2 miskals each; also 2 okes of tongue-sucking, mouth and lip kissing, all to be pounded and mixed.  Then put upon a furnace 3 drams of Egyptian grain with the addition of the beautiful fold of plumpness, boil it in love-water and syrup of desire over a fire of wood of pleasure in the retreat of the ardour.  Decant the whole upon a royal dibaqy divan and add to it 2 okes of saliva syrup and drink it fasting during 3 days.  Next take for dinner the melon of desire mixed with embrace-almond and juice of the lemon of concord, and lastly 3 rolls of thigh-work and enter the bath for the benefit of your health.  And—­The Peace!” When Attaf had finished reading of this paper he burst into a laugh at the prescription and, turning to Ja’afar, he asked him with whom he was in love and of whom he was enamoured.  Ja’afar gave no answer, he spoke not neither did he commence any discourse, when Attaf said, O my brother, thou are not my friend, but thou art in my house esteemed as is the soul in the body.  Between me and thee there has been for the last four months friendship, company, companionship and conversation.  Why then conceal thy situation?  For me, I have fear and sorrow on thine account.  Thou art a stranger, thou art not of this capital.  I am a son of this city, I can dispel what thou hast (of trouble) and that of which thou sufferest.  By my life, which belongs to you, by the bread and salt