The Scented Garden

126 The Vanity of metaphysic. XXXVI SURAIYA1 Sevenfold stands Suraiya in the sky ; Seven virtues do thy podex glorify. First, thou art hotter than Jahim2 itself, And drier than Arabia art thou dry. Third is thy tightness, like an hoop of steel, And O ! thy muscles, their mobility ! Fifth, is thy smell like jasmine-ambergris, And soft thou art like peaches ; seventhly, Such is the beauty of its form that one Seeing it, might be well content to die. [So Allah blazes brighter than the noon ; No water stains His spotless unity. His love once hold thee, He will never loose ; But shake with rapture to the utmost “ I ” ; The perfume of His love is wonderful, And tender is He as a virgin’s eye, While for His beauty are no words of earth, Nor can the heavens this need with song supply.]3 So thou with Allah, man ! hold Him as dear (Nay, dearer !) as the apple of thine eye.