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The Khalif was astounded at her quickness and understanding and said to Ibrahim, 'Put off thy clothes. So he rose and said, 'I call all who are present in this assembly to witness that she is more learned than I and all the learned men. And he put off his clothes and gave them to her, saying, 'Take them and may God not bless them to thee! The Khalif ordered him fresh clothes and said to Taweddud, 'There is one thing left of that for which thou didst engage, namely, chess. And he sent for professors of chess and draughts and backgammon.
Knowest thou not that I did but tempt thee, that I might beguile thee? See: this is check-mate: put off thy clothes. 'Leave me my trousers, quoth he, 'so God requite thee; and he swore by Allah that he would contend with none, so long as Taweddud abode at the Court of Baghdad. Then he took off his clothes and gave them to her and went away.
With this the physician was silent, being weary with much questioning, and Taweddud said to the Khalif, 'O Commander of the Faithful, he hath questioned me till he is weary, and now I will ask him one question, which if he answer not, I will take his clothes as lawful prize. 'Ask on, quoth the Khalif.
Quoth the Khalif to Taweddud, 'Expound to us thy riddle, and she replied, 'O Commander of the Faithful, it is the button and the button loop. Then said she, 'Let him of you who is an astronomer come forward. So the astronomer came forward and sat down before her. When she saw him, she laughed and said, 'Art thou the astronomer, the mathematician, the scribe? 'Yes, answered he.
Moreover, he appointed Aboulhusn one of his boon-companions and assigned him a monthly stipend of a thousand dinars so long as he should live, and he abode with the damsel Taweddud in all delight of life.
In good sooth, he had nothing left, after that which he had squandered, but a slave-girl that his father had bequeathed to him with the rest of his estate: her name was Taweddud and she had no equal in beauty and grace and brightness and symmetry and all perfection. Sun-like, full-moon-like, sapling-like, unto her character Estrangement nowise appertains nor cruelty austere.
Thereupon Taweddud bowed her head and said, 'Which of you is the doctor of the law, the scholar, versed in the interpretation of the Koran and in the Traditions? Quoth one of them, 'I am the man thou seekest. 'Then, said she, 'ask me of what thou wilt. Quoth the doctor, 'Hast thou read the precious book of God and dost thou know its abrogating and abrogated parts and hast thou meditated its verses and expressions? 'Yes, answered she.
Let us return to what we were about. When the Khalif heard her reply, he rose to his feet and said, 'By the Lord of the Kaabeh, thou hast said well, O Taweddud! Then said Ibrahim, 'What means the poet, when he says: Slender of skirts and slim of shape and sweet of taste it is, Most like unto the spear, except it lacks of the spontoon.
'O Taweddud, asked he, 'in what branches of knowledge dost thou excel? 'O my lord, answered she, 'I am versed in syntax and poetry and jurisprudence and exegesis and lexicography and music and the knowledge of the Divine ordinances and in arithmetic and geodesy and the fables of the ancients.
Then he sent for money and paid her master Aboulhusn a hundred thousand dinars to her price; after which he said to her, 'O Taweddud, ask a boon of me. 'O Commander of the Faithful, replied she, 'I ask of thee that thou restore me to my lord who sold me to thee. 'It is well, answered the Khalif and restored her to her master and gave her five thousand dinars for herself.
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