“Woe to him who judges, and woe to him who condemns! It was in the house of Rasheed Nu’man that I was an adulteress and unfaithful. He made me his bed-partner by decree of custom and tradition, but heaven had not made me his mate by the law of the spirit and affection. Good things he gave me that he might satisfy his desires in my body. Whenever I filled my stomach from them, I was polluted and defiled before my soul and before God. Now I have become pure and chaste, for the law of love has set me free. Now I am good and faithful, for I have renounced selling my body for bread and my days for raiment. Indeed, I was an adulteress and a criminal when the people reckoned me a virtuous wife. Today I have become pure and good, yet they consider me a defiled whore. They judge souls by the standards of bodies and weigh the spirit in material scales.”

Mistress Rose looked toward the window and pointed with her left hand at the city. Her voice, higher than before, was tinged with disgust and repugnance, as though among the alleys, on the roofs and porches she saw the ghosts of sin and degradation. “Look at these beautiful houses and tall and stately palaces. There live the rich and powerful among men. Their walls are decorated with silken tapestries yet enclose coarse treachery concealed by hypocrisy. Beneath their gilded roofs, falsehood stands close by affectation. Look! and think on those edifices with care. To you they symbolize wealth, power, and happiness, but they are no more than caves in which lurk degradation, misery, and wretchedness. They are whitewashed sepulchres in which the seduction of helpless women is concealed behind eyes darkened with kohl and reddened lips. Within them the flash of silver and gold hides the egotism and bestiality of men. They are palaces whose walls rise in haughtiness and pride toward the sky, but if they could perceive the stench of the loathsome things and deceit flowing from them, they would crumble and fall to the ground in ruin. The poor villager looks at them with tears in his eyes, yet within the hearts of their inhabitants no trace can be found of that sweet love filling the heart of that villager’s wife. If he knew, he would smile in scorn and return to his field.”

Mistress Rose took my hand and led me to the window overlooking those houses and palaces. “Come.