To which he answered, `It is my wish that she should have children; if she loses them it will be by God's will; if she brings them up they will be useful to her.'

Dahama formulated her claim thus in coming before the Governor: `There stands my husband, and until now he has never touched me.' The Governor interposed, saying, `No doubt this is because you have been unwilling?' `On the contrary,' she replied, `it is for him that I open my thighs and lie down on my back' Then cried the husband, `O Emir, she tells untruth; in order to possess her I have to fight with her.' The Emir pronounced the following judgment: `I give you,' he said, `a year's time to prove her allegation to be false.' He decided thus out of regard for the man. El Adjadje then went away reciting those verses:

Dahama and her father Mesedjel thought
The Emir would decide upon my impotence.
Is not the stallion sometimes lazy-minded?
And yet he is so large and vigorous.

Before God! it is in vain to try with kisses
To entertain me, and with your embracings!
To still my torments I must feel a member,
Ejaculating sperm into my uterus.

A poet said on that occasion:

What are caresses to an ardent woman,
Or costly vestments and fine jewellery,
If the man's organs do not meet her own,
And she is yearning for the virile verge?

A story also goes on this subject that Moussa ben Mesâb betook himself one day to a woman in the town who had a female slave, an excellent singer, whom he wanted to buy from her. This woman was resplendently beautiful, and independent of her charming appearance, she had a large fortune. He saw at the same time in the house a young man of bad shape and ungainly appearance, who went to and fro giving orders.

Moussa asked who the man was, she told him, `This is my husband, and for him I would give my life!' `This is a hard slavery,' he said, `to which you are reduced, and I am sorry for you. We belong to God, and shall return to him but what a misfortune it is that such incomparable beauty and such delightful forms as I see in you should be for such a man!'

She made answer, `O son of my mother, if he could do to you from behind what he does for me in front, you would sell your lately acquired fortune as well as your patrimony. He would appear to you beautiful, and his plain looks would be changed into beauty.'

`May God preserve him to you!' said Moussa

It s also said that the poet Farazdak met one day a woman on whom he cast a glance burning with love, and who for that reason thus addressed him: `What makes you look at me in this fashion? Had I a thousand vulvas, there would be nothing to hope for for you!' `And why?' said the poet. `Because your appearance is not prepossessing,' she said, `and what you keep hidden will be no better.' He replied, `If you would put me to the proof, you would find that my interior qualities are of a nature to make you forget my outer appearance.' He then uncovered himself, and let her see a member the size of the arm of a young girl. At that sight she felt herself burning hot with amorous desire. He saw this, and asked her to let him caress her. Then she uncovered herself and showed him her mount of Venus, vaulted like a cupola.