Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries; Tales -- Arab countries
After this, Gulnare gave birth to a boy, resembling the moon at the
full, whereat the king experienced the utmost happiness, because he had
not before been blessed with a son nor a daughter during his life. They
continued the rejoicings, and the decoration of the city, for a period
of seven days, in the utmost happiness and enjoyment; and on the seventh
day, the mother of Gulnare, and her brother, and the daughters of her
uncle, all came, when they knew that she had given birth to her child.
The king met them, rejoicing at their arrival, and said to them: "I said
that I would not name my son until ye should come, and that ye should
name him according to your knowledge." And they named him Bedr Basim
(_Smiling Full Moon_), all of them agreeing as to this name. They then
presented the boy to his maternal uncle, Saleh, who took him upon his
hands, and, rising with him from among them, walked about the palace to
the right and left; after which he went forth with him from the palace,
descended with him to the sea, and walked on until he became concealed
from the eye of the king. So when the king saw that he had taken his
son, and disappeared from him at the bottom of the sea, he despaired of
him, and began to weep and wail. But Gulnare, seeing him in this state,
said to him, "O King of the age, fear not nor grieve for thy son; for I
love my child more than thou, and my child is with my brother; therefore
fear not his being drowned. If my brother knew that any injury would
betide the little one, he had not done what he hath done; and presently
he will bring thee thy son safe, if it be the will of God, whose name be
exalted!" And but a short time had elapsed when the sea was agitated,
and the uncle of the little one came forth from it, having with him the
king's son safe, and he flew from the sea until he came to them, with
the little one in his arms, silent, and his face resembling the moon in
the night of its fulness. Then the uncle of the little one looked toward
the king, and said to him: "Perhaps thou fearedst some injury to thy son
when I descended into the sea, having him with me." So he replied: "Yes,
O my master, I feared for him, and I did not imagine that he would ever
come forth from it safe." And Saleh said to him: "O King of the Land, we
applied to his eyes a lotion that we know, and repeated over him the
names engraved upon the seal of Solomon, the son of David; for when a
child is born among us, we do to him as I have told thee. Fear not
therefore, on his account, drowning, nor suffocation, nor all the seas
if he descend into them. Like as ye walk upon the land, we walk in the
sea."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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