On the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown…

On the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown reddish-white camels until they had mounted the peacocks upon them,
Peacocks with murderous glances and sovereign power: thou wouldst fancy that each of them was a Bilqís on her throne of pearls.
When she walks on the glass pavement thou seest a sun on a celestial sphere in the bosom of Idrís.
When she kills with her glances, her speech restores to life, as tho’ she, in giving life thereby, were Jesus.
The smooth surface of her legs is (like) the Tora in brightness, and I follow it and tread in its footsteps as tho’ I were Moses.
She is a bishopess, one of the daughters of Rome, unadorned: thou seest in her a radiant Goodness.
Wild is she, none can make her his friend; she has gotten in her solitary chamber a mausoleum for remembrance.
She has baffled everyone who is learned in our religion, every student of the Psalms of David, every Jewish doctor, and every Christian priest.
If with a gesture she demands the Gospel, thou wouldst deem us to be priests and patriarchs and deacons.
The day when they departed on the road, I prepared for war the armies of my patience, host after host.
When my soul reached the throat (i.e. when I was at the point of death), I besought that Beauty and that Grace to grant me relief,
And she yielded—may God preserve us from her evil, and may the victorious king repel Iblís!
I exclaimed, when her she-camel set out to depart, 'O driver of the reddish-white camels, do not drive them away with her!'