Very little of the ancient Egyptian poetry has come down to us, and we can only trace some of it through what we know about the character of the Egyptians of those times, who expressed the mystical and musical aspects of the soul in a symbolical way. Hebrew poetry is little known too, except what one finds in the Old Testament. It was the Arabic lyrics which became best known to the Asiatic world as being the most inspired and beautiful. Also, the Arabs were a metaphysically and philosophically inclined people, and their poetry combined philosophy with lyricism and romance.