Noureddin and the damsel, sprinkled their faces, whereupon they
came to themselves and fell to relating to each other that which
they had suffered, since their separation, for the anguish of
severance. Moreover, Noureddin acquainted Sitt el Milah with that
which he had endured from the folk who would have slain him and
made away with him; and she said to him, "O my lord, let us
presently give over this talk and praise God for reunion of
loves, and all this shall cease from us." Then she gave him the
cup and he said, "By Allah, I will nowise drink it, whilst I am
in this plight!" So she drank it off before him and taking the
lute, swept the strings and sang the following verses:

Thou that wast absent from my stead, yet still with me didst
bide, Thou wast removed from mine eye, yet still wast by my
side.
Thou left'st unto me, after thee, languor and carefulness; I
lived a life wherein no jot of sweetness I espied.
For thy sweet sake, as 'twere, indeed, an exile I had been, Lone
and deserted I became, lamenting, weeping-eyed.
Alack, my grief! Thou wast, indeed, grown absent from my yiew,
Yet art the apple of mine eye nor couldst from me divide.

When she had made an end of her song, she wept and Noureddin wept
also. Then she took the lute and improvised and sang the
following verses:

God knows I ne'er recalled thy memory to my thought, But still
with brimming tears straightway mine eyes were fraught;
Yea, passion raged in me and love-longing was like To slay me;
yet my heart to solace still it wrought.