Note 434 — TALE OF KING INS BIN KAYS AND HIS DAUGHTER WITH THE SON OF KING AL-’ABBAS.[342] (continued 2)
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Mr. Payne and I have long puzzled over these enigmatical and possibly corrupt lines: he wrote to me in 1884, “This is the first piece that has beaten me.” In the couplet above (vol. xii. 230) “Rayháni” may mean “my basil-plant” or “my food” (the latter Koranic), “my compassion,” etc.; and Súsáni is equally ancipitous “My lilies” or “my sleep”: see Bard al-Susan = les douceurs du sommeil in Al-Mas’údi vii. 168.