Ibn al-Farra' taught the Qur'ân and poetry at Almeria (Spain) about 1220. He liked beautiful boys and did not shun addressing aestetic compliments to them in his class. When a favored student asked him to complete a poem with the line "What a beauteous fawn I see!" the facile teacher quipped:

If your roses can't be culled,
If your white teeth can't be kissed,
What's the use my saying then:
"What a beauteous fawn I see!"

(Ibn Hazm 1931:257)