ABSTRACT
Ibn Ḥazm is not the only Muslim poet to have utilized sacred imagery in his secular verse on desire, and, specifically, to have compared passionate couples to scriptural characters and storylines. At around the same time during which Ibn Ḥazm was active in Cordoba and Játiva, a man in Silves by the name of Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Milḥ was similarly engaged in writing poetry and other forms of high-level literature. Whereas Ibn Ḥazm left behind many poems, Ibn al-Milḥ’s oeuvre did not survive the years as well and not much of it remains. Yet in one of the eros poems that did survive, we see that Ibn al-Milḥ, like Ibn Ḥazm, not only utilized Qur’ānic imagery but, in doing so, sent important and moving messages about the spiritual power and significance of passionate human love.
