Then he dismounted and cutting its throat, said to his servant,
"Alight thou and skin it and carry it to the water." Aamir
answered him [with "Hearkening and obedience"] and going down to
the water, kindled a fire and roasted the gazelle's flesh. Then
they ate their fill and drank of the water, after which they
mounted again and fared on diligently, and Aamir still unknowing
whither El Abbas was minded to go. So he said to him, "O my lord,
I conjure thee by God the Great, wilt thou not tell me whither
thou intendest?" El Abbas looked at him and made answer with the
following verses:

In my soul the fire of yearning and affliction rageth aye; Lo, I
burn with love and longing; nought in answer can I say.
To Baghdad upon a matter of all moment do I fare, For the love of
one whose beauties have my reason led astray.
Under me's a slender camel, a devourer of the waste; Those who
pass a cloudlet deem it, as it flitteth o'er the way.
So, O Aamir, haste thy going, e'en as I do, so may I Heal my
sickness and the draining of the cup of love essay;
For the longing that abideth in my heart is hard to bear. Fare
with me, then, to my loved one. Answer nothing, but obey.

When Aamir heard his lord's verses, he knew that he was a slave
of love [and that she of whom he was enamoured abode] in Baghdad.
Then they fared on night and day, traversing plains and stony
wastes, till they came in sight of Baghdad and lighted down in
its suburbs[FN#66] and lay the night there. When they arose in
the morning, they removed to the bank of the Tigris and there
they encamped and sojourned three days.