The Thousand and One Nights
(a large collection of anonymously-authored stories of Indian, Persian and Arabian origin, compiled and edited between the 9th and 15th centuries)
“Guard your secret as you can, entrusting it to none,
For if you do, you will have let it go.
If your own breast cannot contain your secret,
How is it to be held by someone else?”
- This quote, attributed to a certain Ibn al-Thuman, comes from the anonymously-composed The Thousand And One Nights (specifically the story of The Porter and the Three Ladies). The translation used here is by Malcolm C. Lyons (Penguin Classics, 2010, 2019).
