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38
ibrahim al-koni
together, where a babel of
foreign tongues was heard,
where human nature was up
for grabs—would he be able
to locate a woman protected
by the amulet of faithfulness?
Would he discover anywhere
in the desert even one woman
who had never cheated on
her husband—if not with her
body surely at least in her
heart? Would the Spirit World
generously provide news
from the Spirit World without
inserting into the message
an impossible condition?
Didn’t the Spirit World say
prophetically that woman
could deceive even herself—
as she was always happy to
do—but could not deceive the
Spirit World a single time?
But....
But why look so far? Why
would he need to hunt far
away when the creature
whose chastity was discussed
in poems and whose conjugal
faithfulness her female
companions lauded did not
live in the homelands of the
ancient epics, but slept beside
him? Wasn’t his wife the only
creature whose chastity would
never be doubted—not even
by the dread Spirit World—
after people’s tongues had
spoken of it and crowned her
head with chastity?
4
Man’s liquidcausedthedispute
between the sorceress and her
neighbor. Ancient cautionary
tales report that the sorceress
heard her neighbor disparage
the value of this liquid and call
it polluted. So she scolded
and cautioned her. But like
any other chatterbox, this
neighbor gave free rein to her
tongue in women’s gatherings
and thoroughly lambasted