Part 1
# The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 05 (of 10) ### By Unknown
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THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT
A Plain and Literal Translation
of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
Translated and Annotated by Richard F. Burton
VOLUME FIVE
Privately Printed By The Burton Club
To Doctor George Bird.
My Dear Bird, This is not a strictly medical work, although in places treating of subjects which may modestly be called hygienic. I inscribe it to you because your knowledge of Egypt will enable you to appreciate its finer touches; and for another and a yet more cogent reason, namely, that you are one of my best and oldest friends.
Ever yours sincerely,
Richard F. Burton
Athenæum Club, October 20, 1885.
Contents of the Fifth Volume
59. The Ebony Horse 60. Uns Al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter Al-Ward Fi'l-Akmam or Rose-In-Hood 61. Abu Nowas With the Three Boys and the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid 62. Abdallah Bin Ma'amar With the Man of Bassorah and His Slave Girl 63. The Lovers of the Banu Ozrah 64. The Wazir of Al-Yaman and His Younger Brother 65. The Loves of the Boy and Girl at School 66. Al-Mutalammis and His Wife Umaymah 67. The Caliph Marun Al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah in the Bath 68. Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Poets 69. Mus'ab Bin Al-Zubayr and Ayishah His Wife 70. Abu Al-Aswad and His Slave-Girl 71. Harun Al-Rashid and the Two Slave-Girls 72. The Caliph Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Slave-Girls 73. The Miller and His Wife 74. The Simpleton and the Sharper 75. The Kazi Abu Yusuf With Harum Al-Rashid and Queen Zubaydah 76. The Caliph Al-Hakim and the Merchand 77. King Kisra Anushirwan and the Village Damsel 78. The Water-Carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife 79. Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman 80. Yahya Bin Khalid the Barmecide and the Poor Man 81. Mohammed Al-Amin and the Slave-Girl 82. The Sons of Yahya Bin Khalid and Sa'id Bin Salim Al-Bahili 83. The Woman's Trick Against Her Husband 84. The Devout Woman and the Two Wicked Elders 85. Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Old Badawi 86. The Caliph Omar Bin Al-Khattab and the Young Badawi 87. The Caliph Al-Maamum and the Pyramids of Egypt 88. The Thief and the Merchant 89. Masrur the Eunuch and Ibn Al-Karibi 90. The Devotee Prince 91. The Unwise Schoolmaster Who Fell in Love by Report 92. The Foolish Dominie 93. The Illiterate Who Set Up For a Schoolmaster 94. The King and the Virtuous Wife 95. Abd Al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh 96. Adi Bin Zayd and the Princess Hind 97. Di'ibil Al-Khuza'i With the Lady and Muslim Bin Al-Walid 98. Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant 99. The Three Unfortunate Lovers 100. How Abu Hasan Brake Wind 101. The Lovers of the Banu Tayy 102. The Mad Lover 103. The Prior Who Became A Moslem 104. The Loves of Abu Isa and Jurrat Al-Ayn 105. Al-Amin Son of Al-Rashid and His Uncle Ibrahim Bin Al-Mahdi 106. Al-Fath Bin Khakan and Al-Mutawakkil 107. The Man's Dispute With the Learned Woman Concerning the Relative Excellence of Male and Female 108. Abu Suwayd and the Pretty Old Woman 109. The Emir ali Bin Tahir and the Girl Muunis 110. The Woman Who had a Boy and the Other Who had a Man to Lover 111. Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad 112. The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman 113. Abu Alhusn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud 114. The Angel of Death With the Proud King and the Devout Man 115. The Angel of Death and the Rich King 116. The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel 117. Iskandar Zu Al-Karnayn and a Certain Tribe of Poor Folk 118. The Righteousness of King Anushirwan 119. The Jewish Kazi and His Pious Wife 120. The Shipwrecked Woman and Her Child 121. The Pious Black Slave 122. The Devout Tray-Maker and His Wife 123. Al-Jajjaj and the Pious Man 124. The Blacksmith Who Could Handle Fire Without Hurt 125. The Devotee To Whom Allah Gave a Cloud for Service and the Devout King 126. The Moslem Champion and the Christian Damsel 127. The Christian King's Daughter and the Moslem 128. The Prophet and the Justice of Providence 129. The Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit 130. The Island King and the Pious Israelite 131. Abu Al-Hasan and Abu Ja'afar the Leper 132. The Queen of Serpents a. The Adventures of Bulukiya b. The Story of Jansha
The Book Of The
THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT
THE EBONY HORSE.[FN#1]
There was once in times of yore and ages long gone before, a great and puissant King, of the Kings of the Persians, Sαbϊr by name, who was the richest of all the Kings in store of wealth and dominion and surpassed each and every in wit and wisdom. He was generous, open handed and beneficent, and he gave to those who sought him and repelled not those who resorted to him; and he comforted the broken-hearted and honourably entreated those who fled to him for refuge. Moreover, he loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers and did the oppressed justice upon the oppressor. He had three daughters, like full moons of shining light or flower-gardens blooming bright; and a son as he were the moon; and it was his wont to keep two festivals in the twelve- month, those of the Nau-Roz, or New Year, and Mihrgαn the Autumnal Equinox,[FN#2] on which occasions he threw open his palaces and gave largesse and made proclamation of safety and security and promoted his chamberlains and viceroys; and the people of his realm came in to him and saluted him and gave him joy of the holy day, bringing him gifts and servants and eunuchs. Now he loved science and geometry, and one festival-day as he sat on his kingly throne there came in to him three wise men, cunning artificers and past masters in all manner of craft and inventions, skilled in making things curious and rare, such as confound the wit; and versed in the knowledge of occult truths and perfect in mysteries and subtleties. And they were of three different tongues and countries, the first a Hindi or Indian,[FN#3] the second a Roumi or Greek and the third a Farsi or Persian. The Indian came forwards and, prostrating himself before the King, wished him joy of the festival and laid before him a present befitting his dignity; that is to say, a man of gold, set with precious gems and jewels of price and hending in hand a golden trumpet. When Sabur[FN#4] saw this, he asked, "O sage, what is the virtue of this figure?"; and the Indian answered, "O my lord, if this figure be set at the gate of thy city, it will be a guardian over it; for, in an enemy enter the place, it will blow this clarion against him and he will be seized with a palsy and drop down dead." Much the King marvelled at this and cried, "By Allah, O sage, an this thy word be true, I will grant thee thy wish and thy desire." Then came forward the Greek and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a basin of silver, in whose midst was a peacock of gold, surrounded by four-and-twenty chicks of the same metal. Sabur looked at them and turning to the Greek, said to him, "O sage, what is the virtue of this peacock?" "O my lord," answered he, "as often as an hour of the day or night passeth, it pecketh one of its young and crieth out and flappeth its wings, till the four-and-twenty hours are accomplished; and when the month cometh to an end, it will open its mouth and thou shalt see the crescent therein." And the King said, "An thou speak sooth, I will bring thee to thy wish and thy desire." Then came forward the Persian sage and, prostrating himself before the King, presented him with a horse[FN#5] of the blackest ebony-wood inlaid with gold and jewels, and ready harnessed with saddle, bridle and stirrups such as befit Kings; which when Sabur saw, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and was confounded at the beauty of its form and the ingenuity of its fashion. So he asked, "What is the use of this horse of wood, and what is its virtue and what the secret of its movement?"; and the Persian answered, "O my lord, the virtue of this horse is that, if one mount him, it will carry him whither he will and fare with its rider through the air and cover the space of a year in a single day." The King marvelled and was amazed at these three wonders, following thus hard upon one another on the same day, and turning to the sage, said to him, "By Allah the Omnipotent, and our Lord the Beneficent, who created all creatures and feedeth them with meat and drink, an thy speech be veritable and the virtue of thy contrivance appear, I will assuredly give thee whatsoever thou lustest for and will bring thee to thy desire and thy wish!"[FN#6] Then he entertained the sages three days, that he might make trial of their gifts; after which they brought the figures before him and each took the creature he had wroughten and showed him the mystery of its movement. The trumpeter blew the trump; the peacock pecked its chicks and the Persian sage mounted the ebony house, whereupon it soared with him high in air and descended again. When King Sabur saw all this, he was amazed and perplexed and felt like to fly for joy and said to the three sages, "Now I am certified of the truth of your words and it behoveth me to quit me of my promise. Ask ye, therefore, what ye will, and I will give you that same." Now the report of the King's daughters had reached the sages, so they answered, "If the King be content with us and accept of our gifts and allow us to prefer a request to him, we crave of him that he give us his three daughters in marriage, that we may be his sons-in-law; for that the stability of Kings may not be gainsaid." Quoth the King, "I grant you that which you wish and you desire," and bade summon the Kazi forthright, that he might marry each of the sages to one of his daughters. Now it fortuned that the Princesses were behind a curtain, looking on; and when they heard this, the youngest considered her husband to be and behold, he was an old man,[FN#7] an hundred years of age, with hair frosted, forehead drooping, eyebrows mangy, ears slitten, beard and mustachios stained and dyed; eyes red and goggle; cheeks bleached and hollow; flabby nose like a brinjall, or egg- plant[FN#8]; face like a cobbler's apron, teeth overlapping and lips like camel's kidneys, loose and pendulous; in brief a terror, a horror, a monster, for he was of the folk of his time the unsightliest and of his age the frightfullest; sundry of his grinders had been knocked out and his eye-teeth were like the tusks of the Jinni who frighteneth poultry in hen-houses. Now the girl was the fairest and most graceful of her time, more elegant than the gazelle however tender, than the gentlest zephyr blander and brighter than the moon at her full; for amorous fray right suitable; confounding in graceful sway the waving bough and outdoing in swimming gait the pacing roe; in fine she was fairer and sweeter by far than all her sisters. So, when she saw her suitor, she went to her chamber and strewed dust on her head and tore her clothes and fell to buffeting her face and weeping and wailing. Now the Prince, her brother, Kamar al-Akmαr, or the Moon of Moons hight, was then newly returned from a journey and, hearing her weeping and crying came in to her (for he loved her with fond affection, more than his other sisters) and asked her, "What aileth thee? What hath befallen thee? Tell me and conceal naught from me." So she smote her breast and answered, "O my brother and my dear one, I have nothing to hide. If the palace be straitened upon thy father, I will go out; and if he be resolved upon a foul thing, I will separate myself from him, though he consent not to make provision for me; and my Lord will provide." Quoth he, "Tell me what meaneth this talk and what hath straitened thy breast and troubled thy temper." "O my brother and my dear one," answered the Princess, "Know that my father hath promised me in marriage to a wicked magician who brought him, as a gift, a horse of black wood, and hath bewitched him with his craft and his egromancy; but, as for me, I will none of him, and would, because of him, I had never come into this world!" Her brother soothed her and solaced her, then fared to his sire and said, "What be this wizard to whom thou hast given my youngest sister in marriage, and what is this present which he hath brought thee, so that thou hast killed[FN#9] my sister with chagrin? It is not right that this should be." Now the Persian was standing by and, when he heard the Prince's words, he was mortified and filled with fury and the King said, "O my son, an thou sawest this horse, thy wit would be confounded and thou wouldst be amated with amazement." Then he bade the slaves bring the horse before him and they did so; and, when the Prince saw it, it pleased him. So (being an accomplished cavalier) he mounted it forthright and struck its sides with the shovel-shaped stirrup-irons; but it stirred not and the King said to the Sage, "Go show him its movement, that he also may help thee to win thy wish." Now the Persian bore the Prince a grudge because he willed not he should have his sister; so he showed him the pin of ascent on the right side of the horse and saying to him, "Trill this," left him. Thereupon the Prince trilled the pin and lo! the horse forthwith soared with him high in ether, as it were a bird, and gave not overflying till it disappeared from men's espying, whereat the King was troubled and perplexed about his case and said to the Persian, "O sage, look how thou mayest make him descend." But he replied, "O my lord, I can do nothing, and thou wilt never see him again till Resurrection-day, for he, of his ignorance and pride, asked me not of the pin of descent and I forgot to acquaint him therewith." When the King heard this, he was enraged with sore rage; and bade bastinado the sorcerer and clap him in jail, whilst he himself cast the crown from his head and beat his face and smote his breast. Moreover, he shut the doors of his palaces and gave himself up to weeping and keening, he and his wife and daughters and all the folk of the city; and thus their joy was turned to annoy and their gladness changed into sore affliction and sadness. Thus far concerning them; but as regards the Prince, the horse gave not over soaring with him till he drew near the sun, whereat he gave himself up for lost and saw death in the skies, and was confounded at his case, repenting him of having mounted the horse and saying to himself, "Verily, this was a device of the Sage to destroy me on account of my youngest sister; but there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I am lost without recourse; but I wonder, did not he who made the ascent-pin make also a descent-pin?" Now he was a man of wit and knowledge and intelligence; so he fell to feeling all the parts of the horse, but saw nothing save a screw, like a cock's head, on its right shoulder and the like on the left, when quoth he to himself, "I see no sign save these things like buttons." Presently he turned the right-hand pin, whereupon the horse flew heavenwards with increased speed. So he left it and looking at the sinister shoulder and finding another pin, he wound it up and immediately the steed's upwards motion slowed and ceased and it began to descend, little by little, towards the face of the earth, while the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Three Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince wound up the sinister screw, the steed's upward motion slowed and ceased, and it began to descend, little by little, towards the earth while the rider became yet more cautious and careful of his life. And when he saw this and knew the uses of the horse, his heart was filled with joy and gladness and he thanked Almighty Allah for that He had deigned deliver him from destruction. Then he began to turn the horse's head whithersoever he would, making it rise and fall at pleasure, till he had gotten complete mastery over its every movement. He ceased not to descend the whole of that day, for that the steed's ascending flight had borne him afar from the earth; and, as he descended, he diverted himself with viewing the various cities and countries over which he passed and which he knew not, never having seen them in his life. Amongst the rest, he descried a city ordered after the fairest fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains; whereat he fell a-musing and said to himself, "Would I knew the name of yon town and in what land it is!" And he took to circling about it and observing it right and left. By this time, the day began to decline and the sun drew near to its downing; and he said in his mind, "Verily I find no goodlier place to night in than this city; so I will lodge here and early on the morrow I will return to my kith and kin and my kingdom; and tell my father and family what hath passed and acquaint him with what mine eyes have seen." Then he addressed himself to seeking a place wherein he might safely bestow himself and his horse and where none should descry him, and presently behold, he espied a-middlemost of the city a palace rising high in upper air surrounded by a great wall with lofty crenelles and battlements, guarded by forty black slaves, clad in complete mail and armed with spears and swords, bows and arrows. Quoth he, "This is a goodly place," and turned the descent-pin, whereupon the horse sank down with him like a weary bird, and alighted gently on the terrace-roof of the palace. So the Prince dismounted and ejaculating "Alhamdolillah"—praise be to Allah[FN#10]—he began to go round about the horse and examine it, saying, "By Allah, he who fashioned thee with these perfections was a cunning craftsman, and if the Almighty extend the term of my life and restore me to my country and kinsfolk in safety and reunite me with my father, I will assuredly bestow upon him all manner bounties and benefit him with the utmost beneficence." By this time night had overtaken him and he sat on the roof till he was assured that all in the palace slept; and indeed hunger and thirst were sore upon him, for that he had not tasted food nor drunk water since he parted from his sire. So he said within himself, "Surely the like of this palace will not lack of victual;" and, leaving the horse above, went down in search of somewhat to eat. Presently, he came to a staircase and descending it to the bottom, found himself in a court paved with white marble and alabaster, which shone in the light of the moon. He marvelled at the place and the goodliness of its fashion, but sensed no sound of speaker and saw no living soul and stood in perplexed surprise, looking right and left and knowing not whither he should wend. Then said he to himself, "I may not do better than return to where I left my horse and pass the night by it; and as soon as day shall dawn I will mount and ride away."— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Three Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,