“Ask for what you want from our kitchen,” said Zeb-un-Nissa when Mirza Farukh, son of Shah Abbas II of Iran, asked her for a kiss. Farrukh was so smitten by Zeb-un-Nissa’s beauty that when she refused to marry him, he decided to let go of his prince hood. Charmed by her beauty, he madly fell in love with her. Pleading her to marry him, he said:
I am determined never to leave this temple; here will I bow my head, here will I prostrate myself, here I will serve, and here alone is happiness.”
Describing Zeb-un-Nissa’s beauty, scholars Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook, in their translation of the Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa: The First Fifty Ghazals Rendered From The Persian, write:
… she is described as being tall and slim, her face round and fair in colour, with two moles, or beauty-spots, on her left cheek. Her eyes and abundant hair were very black, and she had thin lips and small teeth. In Lahore Museum is a contemporary portrait, which corresponds to this description. In dress, she was simple and austere; in later life she always wore white, and her only ornament was a string of pearls round her neck.
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