"Close prest appear to him who views th' inside * Red rubies in brocaded skirts bedight: Granado I compare with marble dome * Or virgin's breasts delighting every sight: Therein is cure for every ill as e'en * Left an Hadís the Prophet pure of sprite; And Allah (glorify His name) eke deigned * A noble say in Holy Book indite.[FN#386]
The apples were the sugared and the musky and the Dámáni, amazing the beholder, whereof saith Hassan the poet,
"Apple which joins hues twain, and brings to mind * The cheek of lover and beloved combined: Two wondrous opposites on branch they show * This dark[FN#387] and that with hue incarnadined The twain embraced when spied the spy and turned * This red, that yellow for the shame designed."[FN#388]
There also were apricots of various kinds, almond and camphor and Jíláni and 'Antábi,[FN#389] wereof saith the poet,
"And Almond-apricot suggesting swain * Whose lover's visit all his wits hath ta'en. Enough of love-sick lovers' plight it shows * Of face deep yellow and heart torn in twain."[FN#390]
"Look at that Apricot whose bloom contains * Gardens with brightness gladding all men's eyne: Like stars the blossoms sparkle when the boughs * Are clad in foliage dight with sheen and shine."
There likewise were plums and cherries and grapes, that the sick of all diseases assain and do away giddiness and yellow choler from the brain; and figs the branches between, varicoloured red and green, amazing sight and sense, even as saith the poet,
"'Tis as the Figs with clear white skins outthrown * By foliaged trees, athwart whose green they peep, Were sons of Roum that guard the palace-roof * When shades close in and night-long ward they keep."[FN#391]
"Welcome[FN#392] the Fig! To us it comes * Ordered in handsome plates they bring: Likest a Sufrah[FN#393]-cloth we draw * To shape of bag without a ring."
"Give me the Fig sweet-flavoured, beauty-clad, * Whose inner beauties rival outer sheen: And when it fruits thou tastest it to find * Chamomile's scent and Sugar's saccharine: And eke it favoureth on platters poured * Puff-balls of silken thread and sendal green."
And how excellent is the saying of one of them,
"Quoth they (and I had trained my taste thereto * Nor cared for other fruits whereby they swore), 'Why lovest so the Fig?' whereto quoth I * 'Some men love Fig and others Sycamore.[FN#394]'"