 The report may of course be true (in that Mahler may actually have attempted to describe her in music, or may merely have chosen to claim that he had); but her statement is not corroborated.Alma asserts that in the Scherzo movement Mahler 

This memorable (and interpretatively potent) revelation is still encountered in writings about the symphony — in spite of the fact that it is not merely uncorroborated, but is conclusively refuted by the chronology