Note 63 — THE TALE OF ZAYN AL-ASNAM. (ARABIC.)

This MS. uses “Miláh” (pleasant) for “Mubáh” (permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam, that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is “far above rubies” (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine chapter), a virtuous woman being “a crown to her husband” (ibid. xxii. 4); and “a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Prov. xix. 4). The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of roughness and energy suggests a European origin.