2.4.5
And here’s a matter to which I forgot to draw attention and so must enter here and mention: hearts are more easily set alight by women whose faces are fully veiled than those whose faces are in plain sight. This is because, if the eye beholds a beautiful face (even the most charming and intriguing that could be), the imagination rests and ceases to race. If, however, one gazes upon one that’s got a veil on top (assuming that the heart believes its owner to belong to the beloved sex and especially if evidence of this is provided by the prettiness of eye, length of lash, and penciling of eyebrow), the imagination comes flying, freighted with thoughts, and finds no barrier at which to stop.
2.4.6
Then (and here the rhymed prose can end, because it’s filled a page) the mind declares, “This face could be
uthʿubānī,
uthʿubān or uthʿubānī refers to “a face that is magnificent in its comeliness and whiteness”
or ‘possessed of insibāt,’
“one says, ‘There is in his face insibāt,’ i.e., ‘length and extension’”
or is muṣfaḥ,
“a muṣfaḥ face is smooth and handsome”
or muthamʿidd,
“a muthamʿidd face is full and comely”
or mudannar,
“one says, ‘his face shone like a dinar’ meaning ‘it gleamed’”
or mulawwaz,
“a mulawwaz face is handsome and comely”
or makhrūṭ,
“a makhrūṭ face is one that has length”
or sājiʿ,
“a sājiʿ face is regular and comely of appearance”
or ʿanmī,447
“a handsome ruddy face”
or fadgham,
“a full handsome face”
or possessed of kalthamah,
“kalthamah is seamlessness of the flesh of the face without bloatedness”
or masnūn;
“one says, ‘A man whose face is masnūn,’ [meaning] his face is smooth, handsome, even”
2.4.7
or could bring together all the components of good looks to embrace smooth, lean, and wide, or compact and rounded, cheeks, with, in each cheek, when she laughs, a crinkle or a dimple, or a speckle or a pimple, a [?]448 or chin cleft,
or those cheeks might have on them
a ʿulṭah,
the ʿulṭah, or luʿṭah, is ‘a black mark that a woman draws on her face for adornment’
or each might have a mole that adds beauty to the whole, and reinforces the charm of it overall;
or both, or one, might have a khidād (a brand upon the cheek) or a tarkh (a light incision);
or a waḥṣ or a ʿudd or a ẓibẓāb (the waḥṣ is ‘the eruption that comes out on a pretty girl’s face’ and ẓibẓāb are ‘eruptions on the faces of pretty girls; synonym ʿudd’);
and this face might include also front teeth that are munaṣṣab, with shanab, ratal, and ḥabab (front teeth that are munaṣṣab are those that ‘grow straight’; shanab is ‘a fluid, or a softness, or a coolness, or a sweetness, on the teeth,’ or ‘spots of whiteness thereon,’ or ‘the canines being so sharp that they look like a saw’ (synonym gharb); ratal is ‘whiteness of the teeth and their extreme moistness’ and ḥabab is ‘even spacing of the teeth, and the fluid that passes over them making them look like pieces of glass),’
or a gap between the incisors caused by the milk, with ushur and washr (the ushur of teeth, or of a woman, are ‘the file-marks on them that are either caused by nature or deliberately — one says, “the woman filed (asharat or ashsharat) her teeth”’; washr is ‘a woman’s sharpening and pointing her teeth’),
or the owner of this face might have a ʿitrah in love with which has fallen a ʿitrah (the first ʿitrah is ‘the file-marks on the teeth and the precision with which they are sharpened,’ and ‘purity,’ and ‘a fluid that runs over [the teeth],’ and ‘sweet saliva’; the second is ‘a man’s offspring and his people and clan, consisting of his closer relations, both the living and the dead,’
or on her chin there might be a cleft that seeks protection in Sūrat Nūn,449
or her lip might be ‘moist,’ or ‘red shading into black,’ or nakiʿah, or have ‘a blackness of gum and lip’ or a ‘dryness’ or honey might ooze from it copiously, or she might have a thurmulah that heals love-sickness (a thurmulah is ‘the depression that is on the outer part of the upper lip’; lips that are nakiʿah are ‘bright red’),
or her ṭurmah might contain ṭirm (a ṭurmah is ‘a swelling in the middle of the upper lip’ and ṭirm is ‘honeycomb, butter, or honey’),
2.4.8
or she might have a turfah more appetizing than any turfah (a turfah is ‘a raised thing in the middle part of the upper lip (a congenital feature),’ and it also means ‘tasty food’ and ‘something nice that you give only to your friend’),