Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night." She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting
and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Sultan
enquired of the two elder sons concerning their younger brother
and they said, "We made ourselves masters of the Bird and we have
brought him hither and we know nothing about our cadet." However,
the King who loved his youngest with exceeding love put the
question, "Have ye not looked after him and have ye not been in
his company?" whereto they answered saying, "A certain wayfarer
declared to have seen him on some path or other." When the father
heard this from them he cried, "There is no Majesty and there is
no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great;" and he fell to
striking palm upon palm.[FN#297] On this wise it befel these, but
as regards the case of their brother, when they cast him into the
well he awoke from his sleep and he felt himself falling into the
depths, so he cried, "I take refuge with the All-sufficient Words
of Allah[FN#298] from the mischief He hath created." And by the
blessing of these Holy Names he reached the sole of the well
without aught of harm or hurt. Here finding himself pinioned, he
strained upon his bonds and loosed them; but the well was deep of
bottom and he came upon an arched recess, so he sat in it and
exclaimed, "Verily we are Allah's and to Him we are returning and
I who wrought for them such work[FN#299] am rewarded with the
contrary thereof; withal the power is unto Allah." And suddenly
he heard the sound of speaking at some little distance beside
him, and the voice was saying, "O Black of Head, who hath come
amongst us?" and his comrade responded, "By Allah, this youth is
the son of the Sultan and his best beloved, and the same hath
released his brothers from sorcery and was carrying them to their
homes when they played him false and cast him into this well.
However, he hath a signet-ring with a bezel which if he rub
'twill bespeak him with whatso he desireth, and will do what he
may wish." So the Prince said in his mind, "I bid the Servant of
this Ring to take me out;" after which he rubbed it and the Jinni
appeared and cried, "Yea verily, O son of the Sultan, what is it
thou requirest of me?"?And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn
of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then
quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is thy story, O sister
mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is
this compared with that I should relate to you on the coming
night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the
next night and that was
The Four Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account