The Perfumed Garden is another book that together with the Kama Sutra and the Ananga Ranga may translate the thoughts and ideas of the people from Arabia and North Africa on the human sexuality and relationships, which had (partly thanks to such books) a major impact on our today's society values.

Much more than a simple work of pornography plenty of lists sex positions as many people still believe, these books may offer interesting views on the way that sex was treated on the old times.

Written around the 16th century in Arabia by Sheikh Nefzaoui, the Perfumed Garden was a sexual manual, which in such male dominated society as it was at the time of its written, was prohibited for women, especially for containing details of sex positions. The book was also translated by Richard Burton (same translator of the Kama Sutra), although this time, he used a previous translation from French as a reference. Considered more humorous and erotic than the other books about the subject (specially Kama Sutra), the Perfumed Garden included more than only descriptions of sex positions, but also descriptions of characteristics of desirable men and women, and extensive lists of names for penis and vagina (Lingam and Yoni, in Sanskrit) according to their sizes and shapes, and also different ways and sex positions to arouse women before intercourse. Some specialists claim that most descriptions for the different sex positions were borrowed from Arabian works.

Also differently from the Kama Sutra, the Perfumed Garden included a chapter on homosexuality, with clear references to lesbianism, and a chapter on pederasty. Both were left out from the book when it was translated. Frequently, the Perfumed Garden is referred as a sex position guide, the same way it happens with the Kama Sutra. It's also common to see both the Kama Sutra and Perfumed Garden combined as a single book, although their differences in content and age.