1. She swore no tyrant would disobey her desire
For all time, even if he were her god.

2. No seducer escaped from her,
She drew him near and grasped him in her hands.

3. It was said of her: She is a sorceress
Who defies the power of jinn in their heyday.

4. An old woman promised the youth,
And promised the lifetime of old age her youth.

5. She was adept in astrology and understood
The tales of love and its well-known idiom.

6. It was said: None can thwart her schemes
Except a demon, none can erase her tattoos.

7. And they recounted of her tales of sinful passion
That would seem strange to whoever told them.

8. And myths of nights dyed
With blood shed by her hands.

9. Travelers mention of her that
She stole the beauty of every seducer.

10. And every lover she summoned who disobeyed
Lies slain between the eyes of his wife.

11. Whenever she obtained a tryst with a lad
She enchanted him while he was in her passion’s embrace

12. And confined him like a flower in a vase
That steals the breath with the sweetness of its fragrance.

13. Flowers depicting her lovers
With eyes drowning in their abhorrence.

14. So when the night lowered its veil
She unleashed their ghosts in her sanctuary.

15. A throbbing, thrilling, craving
With thirsty eyes and mouths.

16. She relives the past in her pleasures
And her nights, and the longing of her visions.

17. She writhes between them enflamed
With lust, the night devours her ardency.

18. Once, the devil passed by her horizon
And saw, then arts like none he had seen before.

19. What a wondrous valley, its rocks
Feared by the wind that blows on them.

20. What a lofty palace at the summit
Whose stars are like some of its gravel.

21. And paths winding around it
Like serpents smoothed over its curves.

22. And dovecotes of twittering doves
Who coo as decreed by their Creator.

23. He thought it an uncivilized region
His eyes had missed seeing the day before.

24. So he swooped down from his roost to wander
Ways decorated by art’s adornments.

25. And wherever he wandered, his rapture grew
At the sight of the flowers embellishing its expanse.

26. Golden vases he mistook
For the shedding of a fawn’s baby teeth.

27. Whenever his hands touched a flower
Her lips beckoned him to pluck it.

28. So he picked as much as he liked until he left
No flower in a vase that he did not pick.

29. And he delighted in their fragrance and they scattered
Like beads of diamond that dazzle the eye.

30. Such wonder! Nothing but earth she touched!
What light shone and made it bloom so?

31. A glance, or a flutter, and he trembled,
Thrilled by something that stripped him bare.

32. And before his eyes she turned into blood,
A serpent slithering to the door step.

33. The spell was broken and she reverted
To the world of the senses, her steps slowing.

34. And the devil wandered in her wake
Swimming in never-ending shock.

35. Oh her! How she settled then fled!
A moment passed but she was unaware!

36. And night approached, a shout rang out
Waking him when awareness was undesired.

37. And there a laden table
With jugs stretched to the edges.

38. Filled with wine, light and fragrance
Breezes swirled and clinked its vessels.

39. And platters like bowls of visions
Where souls find their cravings.

40. And there an enclosure around him
Its emptiness throbbing with lifeblood.

41. A singing girl stood at its gate
Bare but for the folds of her dress.

42. What beauty depicted
In the form of a woman enchanting in her youth.

43. She emerged in a green halo
And eyes that glimmered with water.

44. Then called: “O my loves arise
And enjoy the night to its end.”

45. And her voice faded, no echo returned
No, nor was there a respondent to her call.

46. So she trembled, and turned,
And saw him, so she faced him directly.

47. She saw a face like the distorted visage
That did not disguise itself, this face ruled faces.

48. And she saw his hands from which dripped
The sap of flowers, so she cast down her gaze.

49. She knew what his hands had wrought
Would not the treader of her sanctuary know?

50. Oh this distortion! She circled and walked away
A scream warning of doom echoed in her wake.

51. So the devil shrank from her crying out
Does she dare defy? Who can she be?

52. Then a sign appeared on her lips
Of clear sorcery, or did he imagine it?

53. She approached scrutinizing him so his eye
Convulsed when she gestured with her staff.

54. That staff turned into a skull
When she brandished it, so he took heed.

55. She is a jinniya who pours upon him
The strokes of death with her cave.

56. So he recoiled dejected and downtrodden
As she too recoiled, sorrow silencing her mouth.

57. And silence blanketed them
That enshrouds the earth when it is restored.

58. And their eyes met so they found
A respite neither had known before.

59. She recognized him so she pardoned him
And he saw her so he was awed by her power.

60. He said: “Sister, forgive me a glance
That craved every beauty and its desire.”

61. “And forgive me a raging vice
In my blood, had I insisted none would deter it.”

62. “Oh this blood! What is its substance?
All in fire of its flames and blaze.”

63. So she replied: “My flowers return
If you speak truth and do not seek harm.”

64. He said: “I recall only a dream
A moment my mind strayed and was lost.”

65. “Is it body? Is it soul? If you are
Only the soul returns to its Lord.”

66. So she felt the extent of his ignorance
And was too shy to face him.

67. He cried: “Your forgiveness do not grieve!
Ask of me what you wish, nothing held back!”

68. “Am I who steps beyond the sun’s orbit
So its light turns cold and its blaze recoils?”

69. “Am I who extinguishes the stars of my mouth
And returns the earth submerged in its darkness?”

70. “And touches the mountaintops with my hand
So I see it sloping towards my palm?”

71. “And come to earth off its axis
Whereupon I lower its poles?”

72. “And drive back the winds from their course
So they scour the cosmos unaware of direction?”

73. “Am I incapable of grasping what
A woman desires?! Your refuge sought!”

74. “Ah, how feeble my power is, and I
Was vain only in my arrogance!”

75. She said: “Now peace my visitor,
And my soul’s acceptance if you seek its acceptance.”

76. “O Satan, how great is what
You have said, nothing vain or foolish.”

77. “Those flowers of mine were but
Passions, my arrogant body nurtured.”

78. “They subjugated me, and humiliated me through them
Jealousy, its scorpions shred my heart.”

79. “And the selfishness of a woman who cannot
Endure a seducer owned by another woman.”

80. “You have done right, you have punished me
So have mercy on the woman in the anguish of her love.”

81. So he approached her, and found his face
Changed from what it was, she found her brother!

82. The sorrow of their souls drew them close
And she chose him after hatred and loathing.

83. And a teardrop emerged from her eye
A teardrop that trembled and wet its drops.

84. It encompassed every torment and sadness
All the soul’s pouring out of its pain.

85. And he saw her glistening so his eye
Was touched with mercy, and he hid his weeping.

86. And Satan cried! Oh woman
Who made Satan cry when he saw her!