will perish, and indeed I am bewildered concerning my affair."
"Know, O my neighbour," answered the Jew, "that the slave-girls
of the Commander of the Faithful are used to drink wine, and
whenas they eat and drink not, they perish; and I fear lest some
mishap betide her, in which case thou wouldst not be safe from
the Khalifs wrath." "What is to be done?" asked the Sheikh; and
the Jew replied, "I have old wine that will suit her." Quoth the
old man, "[I conjure thee] by the right of neighbourship, deliver
me from this calamity and let me have that which is with thee!"
"In the name of God," answered the Jew and going to his house,
brought out a flagon of wine, with which the Sheikh returned to
Sitt el Milah. This pleased her and she said to him, "Whence
hadst thou this?" "I got it from my neighbour the Jew," answered
he. "I set out to him my case with thee and he gave me this."

Sitt el Milah filled a cup and emptied it; after which she drank
a second and a third. Then she filled the cup a fourth time and
handed it to the old man, but he would not accept it from her.
However, she conjured him, by her own head and that of the
Commander of the Faithful, that he should take it from her, till
he took the cup from her hand and kissed it and would have set it
down; but she conjured him by her life to smell it. So he smelt
it and she said to him, "How deemest thou?" "Its smell is sweet,"
replied he; and she conjured him, by the life of the Commander of
the Faithful, to taste it. So he put it to his mouth and she rose
to him and made him drink; whereupon, "O princess of the fair,"
said he, "this is none other than good." Quoth she, "So deem I.
Hath not our Lord promised us wine in Paradise?" And he answered,
"Yes. Quoth the Most High, 'And rivers of wine, a delight to the
drinkers.'[FN#36] And we will drink it in this world and the