When he
saw them, he rose and said to them, 'May your bath profit you
ever!' Whereupon Taj el Mulouk replied, with the sweetest of
speech, 'May God be bountiful to thee, O my father! Why didst
thou not come with us and bathe in our company?' Then they both
bent over his hands and kissing them, walked before him to the
shop, to do him honour and show their respect for him, for that
he was chief of the merchants and the market, as well as their
sense of his kindness in giving them the shop. When he saw their
hips quivering, emotion and longing redoubled on him and he could
not contain himself, but puffed and snorted and devoured them
with his eyes, repeating the following verses:
The heart in them studies the chapter of worship unshared sheer
No proofs of more gods to worship than one it readeth here.
No wonder it is they tremble by reason of their weight; How much
is there not of motion in that revolving sphere!
And also these:
Two fair ones walking on the earth mine eyes did late espy; Two
that I needs must love although they walked upon mine eye.
When they heard this, they begged him to enter the bath with them
a second time. He could hardly believe his ears and hastening
thither, went in with them. The Vizier had not yet left the bath;
so when he heard of the overseer's coming, he came out and
meeting him in the outer room of the bath, invited him to enter.
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