Story No. 1

They asked Hasan of Meymand: 'Sultan Mahmud owns so many beautiful servants, each one a wonder of the world. How is it that he feels affection for none of them the way he does for Ayaz, whose looks are nothing special?' He replied: 'Whatever settles into the heart looks lovely to the eye.' Whoever has the king's devotion, even if he does wrong, seems to do right. And the one the king casts aside, no one in the household will comfort. If someone looks with an eye of scorn, he will call even Joseph's beautiful face ugly. But if you look with an eye of love upon a demon, it will seem to you an angel of paradise.