Original content

English translation

Azraqi Heravi - may God's mercy be upon him - was skilled in the principles of poetry and accomplished in the laws of science and wisdom. His patron was afflicted with an ailment such that the power of sexual union failed him, and the physicians were unable to treat it. Azraqi versified and illustrated the book Alfiyya and Shalfiyya, and he married one of the king's favorite slave-boys to a slave-girl, and lodged them in the king's harem, where nothing but a lattice screen stood as a barrier between them and the king. He set this book before them and directed them to occupy themselves with companionship and intercourse according to the various figures depicted in that book, and he directed the king to observe their condition from behind the lattice without their being aware of it. When this observation had been repeated, the innate heat gathered strength and severed that humor which had prevented the rising of the member, and like curdled rennet it came forth congealed from the passage of the urethra, and the purpose was accomplished. And among his sayings in praise of wine is: Cupbearer, bring ruby wine, for from imagining it the mind becomes a tulip-field and the eye a rose-garden. Should a fairy pass by night within its rays, it could not be hidden from the human eye. More fragrant than ambergris and more colorful than carnelian, brighter than a star and purer than the spirit.