He went on to say: the weaver leapt up, dancing and clapping for the rest of the day, overjoyed and repeating, “By Allah, he has likened her to the Emperor of Rome!”

Among Abū Nuwās’s other verses are:

“People have wearied me, forever crying, ‘Repent!’—
as though, they claim, my sins have grown immense. (1)
If I should end in Hell, or in the Garden,
what concern is that of yours, O sons of adultery?”

In short, many reports have been circulated about him—acts of shamelessness and reprehensible poetry. His wine-odes, obscene pieces, and amorous verse about beardless youths and women are grotesque and repulsive. Some therefore regard him as flagrantly immoral and accuse him of debauchery; others brand him a zindīq (heretic); still others say he was simply ruining himself. The first view is the clearer, given the content of his poems. As for outright heresy, that is unlikely; but he was certainly guilty of much frivolity and dissolution. Both in his youth and old age scandals were attributed to him—Allah knows best how true they are—and the common folk pass around many tales about him that have no basis in fact.

In the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Damascus there is a dome from which water bubbles forth. The Damascenes call it “Abū Nuwās’s Dome,” even though it was built more than one hundred and fifty years after his death. For what reason it was linked to him I do not know; Allah knows best.

Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿUmayr said: “I heard Abū Nuwās declare, ‘By Allah, never once have I undone my trousers for anything unlawful.’”

Muḥammad al-Amīn ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd once said to him, “You are a zindīq.”

He replied, “O Commander of the Faithful, I am no zindīq. Indeed, I say:

I perform the five prayers exactly at their times,
bearing witness to Allah’s oneness in humble submission;
I make a proper ghusl whenever major impurity befalls me,
and I never turn away a beggar who comes to my door;
Yet whenever the cup summons me to pledge the cup-bearer,
I hasten to answer the call without delay.
I drink it neat beside a well-fattened goat
and a plump kid still suckling and full of fat;
With sweet jawdhāb, fresh white bread, almonds, and sugar—
commodities from which the wine-seller ever profits;
And I consign the whole muddled creed of all the Rāfiḍīs
to the faqhah of Bakhtīshūʿ in the Fire, willingly.”

Al-Amīn exclaimed, “Woe to you! What made you drag in the faqhah of Bakhtīshūʿ?”

He answered, “The rhyme demanded it.” Al-Amīn thereupon ordered a reward for him. Bakhtīshūʿ, whom he mentioned, was the physician of the caliphs.

Al-Jāḥiẓ said, “I know of nothing in poetic speech more delicate or finer than Abū Nuwās’s words:

What flame has the striker’s spark ignited?
To what pitch has the jester’s jest turned earnest?”