And Almeryl continued, ’I questioned the messengers myself, and they told me the marvel of thy loveliness and the peril to him that looked on it, so I swore there was no power should keep me from a sight of thee, O my loved one! my prize! my life! my sleek antelope of the hills!  Surely when my father appointed the warriors to lie in wait for thy coming, I slipped among them, so that they thought it ordered by him I should head them.  The rest is known to thee, O my fountain of blissfulness! but the treachery to Ruark was the treachery of Ebn Asrac, not of such warriors as we; and I would have fallen on Ebn Asrac, had not Ruark so routed that man without faith.  ’Twas all as I have said, blessed be Allah and his decrees!’

Bhanavar gazed on her beloved, and the bridal dew overflowed her underlids, and she loosed her hair to let it flow, part over her shoulders, part over his, and in sighs that were the measure of music she sang: 

     I thought not to love again! 
      But now I love as I loved not before;
     I love not; I adore! 
   O my beloved, kiss, kiss me! waste thy kisses like a rain. 
     Are not thy red lips fain? 
      Oh, and so softly they greet! 
      Am I not sweet? 
    Sweet must I be for thee, or sweet in vain: 
     Sweet to thee only, my dear love! 
    The lamps and censers sink, but cannot cheat
     These eyes of thine that shoot above
     Trembling lustres of the dove! 
    A darkness drowns all lustres:  still I see
      Thee, my love, thee! 
    Thee, my glory of gold, from head to feet! 
   Oh, how the lids of the world close quite when our lips meet!

Almeryl strained her to him, and responded: 

     My life was midnight on the mountain side;
      Cold stars were on the heights: 
     There, in my darkness, I had lived and died,
      Content with nameless lights. 
     Sudden I saw the heavens flush with a beam,
      And I ascended soon,
     And evermore over mankind supreme,
      Stood silver in the moon.

And he fell playfully into a new metre, singing: 

     Who will paint my beloved
      In musical word or colour? 
     Earth with an envy is moved: 
      Sea-shells and roses she brings,
      Gems from the green ocean-springs,
      Fruits with the fairy bloom-dews,
      Feathers of Paradise hues,
      Waters with jewel-bright falls,
      Ore from the Genii-halls: 
     All in their splendour approved;
     All; but, match’d with my beloved,
      Darker, and denser, and duller.

Then she kissed him for that song, and sang: 

     Once to be beautiful was my pride,
      And I blush’d in love with my own bright brow: 
     Once, when a wooer was by my side,
      I worshipp’d the object that had his vow: 
     Different, different, different now,
      Different now is my beauty to me: 
     Different, different, different now! 
      For I prize it alone because prized by thee.