Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
The third prince, who was named Badialzaman (Badíu'l-Zamán = Rarity of the
Age) obtained leave from the Sultan to build a cabinet entirely of rock
crystal. He went to sleep there before it was entirely finished, but without
saying anything to the Sultan, as he was resolved to see whether Morhagian
would treat him in the same way. Morhagian arrived at midnight, and declared
that the cabinet was built over the palace of his third daughter. He destroyed
the cabinet' and when the prince seized his sword, Morhagian took to flight.
The prince wounded him three times before he reached the well, but he
nevertheless succeeded in escaping.
Prince Badialzaman did not present himself to the Sultan, but went to the two
princes, his brothers, and urged them to pursue the genius in the well itself.
The three went together, and the eldest was let down into the well by a rope,
but after descending a certain distance, he cried out, and asked to be drawn
up a rain. He excused his failure by saying that he felt a burning heat [and
was almost suffocated]. The same thing happened to Prince Gaiath Eddin, who
likewise cried out till he was drawn up. Prince Badialzaman then had himself
let down but commanded his brothers not to draw him up again, even if he
should cry out. They let him down, and he cried out, but he continued to
descend till he reached the bottom of the well, when he untied himself from
the rope, and called out to his brothers that the air was very foul. At the
bottom of the well he found an open door and he advanced for some distance
between two walls, at the end of which he found a golden door, which he
opened, and beheld a magnificent palace. He entered and passed through the
kitchen and the storerooms, which were filled with all kinds of provisions,
and then inspected the rooms, when he entered one magnificently furnished with
sofas and divans. He was curious to find out who lived there, so he hid
himself. Soon afterwards he beheld a flight of doves alight at the edge of a
basin of water in the middle of the court The doves plunged into the water,
and emerged from it as women, each of whom immediately set about her appointed
work. One went to the store room, another to the kitchen a third began to
sweep [and so on]. They prepared a feast [as if for expected guests]. Some
time afterwards, Badialza man beheld another flight of ten doves of different
colours who surrounded an eleventh, which was quite white, and these also
perched on the edge of the basin. The ten doves plunged into the basin and
came forth as women, more beautiful than the first and more magnificently
robed. They took the white dove and plunged her into a smaller basin, which
was [filled with] rose [water] and she became a woman of extraordinary beauty.
She was the eldest daughter of the genius, and her name was Fattane. (Fattánah
= The Temptress.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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