There was once on a time a Queen to whom God had given no children.
Every morning she went into the garden and prayed to God in heaven to
bestow on her a son or a daughter. Then an angel from heaven came to
her and said, “Be at rest, thou shalt have a son with the power of
wishing, so that whatsoever in the world he wishes for, that shall he
have.” Then she went to the King, and told him the joyful tidings, and
when the time was come she gave birth to a son, and the King was filled
with gladness. Every morning she went with the child to the garden
where the wild beasts were kept, and washed herself there in a clear
stream. It happened once when the child was a little older, that it was
lying in her arms and she fell asleep. Then came the old cook, who knew
that the child had the power of wishing, and stole it away, and he took
a hen, and cut it in pieces, and dropped some of its blood on the
Queen’s apron and on her dress. Then he carried the child away to a
secret place, where a nurse was obliged to suckle it, and he ran to the
King and accused the Queen of having allowed her child to be taken from
her by the wild beasts. When the King saw the blood on her apron, he
believed this, fell into such a passion that he ordered a high tower to
be built, in which neither sun nor moon could be seen, and had his wife
put into it, and walled up. Here she was to stay for seven years
without meat or drink, and die of hunger. But God sent two angels from
heaven in the shape of white doves, which flew to her twice a day, and
carried her food until the seven years were over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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