Suheir Salmoon was a woman beyond compare. She became famous for never having turned down a solicitation from any man because, she said, she had enough tender and desirable flesh to satisfy those hungry for it, regardless of how many there were. She gave her gifts without asking for payment, saying in a trembling voice she had no money to give alms to the poor, the wretched, and the orphans.
One night her house and bedroom were full of male guests, and they all agreed her fair flesh was a burning snow that did not turn into water and that her lips were more beautiful than wild berries growing in any forest. The praise embarrassed her and she murmured, her face reddening, “True beauty consists in moral conduct.”
Her guests then praised her firm and supple morals, their warmth and rightness, and the redness in her face grew more intense until she seemed like a drunken woman. She then wet her lips with her tongue and informed her guests that, on that very day, she had accidentally touched a wall made of stone, and green grass had covered it instantly. The men rushed to be blessed by her hand, but one of them objected, saying he didn’t believe her words because no sooner did her hand touch flesh than it went wild, lost its flexibility and became stiff and hard like a stone. The guests laughed as they had never laughed before.
Suheir was surprised when a young man whom she knew to be shy like a girl cried out, “Whether it is to be honor or disgrace, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Then, bowing politely in front of her, he asked her to touch anything that pleased her and if green grass grew on it then she would be telling the truth. Suheir was stunned, but hid her hurt feelings, for she was telling nothing less than the truth. That night she slept in extreme misery, and a strange visitor came to her in a dream. His upper part was in deep darkness and the lower suffused with a blinding light. The visitor said to her that her reward for a life full of pious and generous deeds was that upon waking she would find herself able to fly. She woke up immediately and found she could indeed fly like a small, fast airplane. She flew away and disappeared from sight. The men waited anxiously and impatiently, but she never came back. They did not believe she would desert them, and said her prolonged absence was because she had lost her way in the wide-open sky or had flown over forbidden territory.