Poet and Muse diptych of a wax tablet; the inscription has not survived, so there can be no way to identify the writer for whom it was made. In the literature that has accumulated about this diptych, various prominent figures have been offered as candidates: Ausonius, Boethius, and Claudian, and even earlier figures, like Ennius and Seneca, with whom the donor wished to be associated The muse represented is Erato, muse of lyric poetry, with her usual attribute, the cithara, which she rests upon an ornately fluted column. The poet on the facing panel is seated, roused from his contemplation by the inspiring presence
Nasīb (poetry) collection of sixty-one "nasīb"s. Nasīb (poetry) Nasīb () is an Arabic literary form, 'usually defined as an erotic or amatory prelude to the type of long poem called a "qaṣīdah".' However, although at the beginning of the form's development "nasīb" meant 'love-song', it came to cover much wider kinds of content: 'The "nasīb" usually is understood as the first part of the "qaṣīdah" where the poet remembers his beloved. In later ages the "nasīb" stood alone, and in that sense the meaning came to be understood as erotic and love poetry.' Early and prominent examples of the "nasīb" appear in