My wife woke; a shudder ran through her and she became an ‘ifrita. She then carried me to an island where she left me for a time before coming back at dawn and saying: ‘I am your servant and it was I who saved your life by carrying you off, with the permission of Almighty God. You must know that I am one of the jinn and when I saw you I fell in love with you, as God had decreed. For I believe in Him and in His Apostle, may God bless him and give him peace. I came to you wearing rags, as you saw, but you married me and now I have saved you from drowning. I am angry with your brothers and will have to kill them.’
I was astonished to hear this and I thanked her for what she had done but forbade her to kill my brothers. I then told her the whole story of my dealings with them and this prompted her to say: ‘Tonight I shall fly off to them, sink their ship and destroy them.’ I implored her in God’s Name not to do that, reminding her of the proverb that tells those who do good to those who wrong them – ‘The evil-doer’s own deeds are punishment enough for him’ – and pointing out that, at all events, they were my brothers. She continued to insist, despite my pleading with her, and she then flew off with me and put me down on the roof of my own house. I opened the doors, brought out the money that I had buried and opened up my shop, after greeting the people there and buying goods for trade.
When I went home that evening, I found these two dogs tied up and when they caught sight of me they came up with tears in their eyes and attached themselves to me. Before I realized what was happening, my wife told me: ‘These are your brothers.’ ‘Who did this to them?’ I asked, and she said: ‘I sent a message to my sister; it was she who transformed them, and they will not be freed from the spell for ten years.’ My brothers have now been like this for ten years and I was on my way to get them released when I came across this man. He told me his story and I decided not to leave him until I saw what was going to happen between you and him. This is my tale.
‘It is a marvellous one,’ agreed the ‘ifrit, adding: ‘I grant you a third share in the blood he owes for his crime.’
The third old man, with the mule, now said: ‘If I tell you a more amazing story than these two, will you grant me the remaining share?’ The ‘ifrit agreed AND THE MAN WENT ON:
Sultan and leader of the jinn, this mule was my wife. I had been away for a year on my travels, and when I had finished I came back to her. This was at night and I saw a black slave lying in bed with her; the two of them talked, flirted, laughed, kissed and played with each other. My wife caught sight of me and came to me with a jug of water over which she uttered a spell. She sprinkled the water over me and said: ‘Leave this shape of yours and take the form of a dog.’ Immediately I became a dog and she drove me out through the door of the house.
I went on until I came to a butcher’s shop, where I started gnawing bones. The butcher saw me and took me into his house, where his daughter covered her face from me and said: ‘Are you bringing a man in to me?’ ‘Where is there a man?’ asked her father, and she said: ‘This dog is a man over whom his wife has cast a spell, but I can free him from it.’ ‘Do that, for God’s sake,’ said her father, and she took a jug of water, spoke some words over it and sprinkled some of it on me. ‘Go back to your original shape,’ she said, and that is what I did.
I kissed the girl’s hand and said: ‘I would like you to use your magic to do to my wife what she did to me.’ She gave me some water and told me: ‘When you find her asleep, sprinkle this water over her and say what you like, for she will become whatever you want.’ I took the water and went to my wife, whom I found sleeping. I sprinkled her with the water and said: ‘Leave this shape and become a mule,’ which she did there and then, and it is she whom you can see, sultan and chief of the kings of the jinn.
*
‘Is that true?’ the man asked the mule, at which it nodded its head, conveying by gesture the message: ‘That is my story and that is what happened to me.’ When the old man had finished his tale, the ‘ifrit, trembling with delight, granted him a third of the merchant’s blood.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. ‘What a good, pleasant, delightful and sweet story this is!’ exclaimed Dunyazad, at which Shahrazad told her: ‘How can this compare with what I shall tell you this coming night, if I am still alive and the king spares me?’ ‘By God,’ the king said to himself, ‘I am not going to kill her until I hear the rest of this remarkable story,’ and so they spent the rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had fully risen. The king then went to his court; the troops arrived together with the vizier, and when everyone was there, he gave his judgements, appointing some officials, dismissing others, and issuing orders and prohibitions until evening. The court was then dismissed and the king returned to his palace, where, when night came, he lay again with Shahrazad.
When it was the third night, Dunyazad asked her sister to finish the story. ‘With pleasure,’ said Shahrazad and went on: ‘I have heard, O fortunate king, that the third old man told the ‘ifrit a more remarkable story than the other two, and that in his astonishment and delight the ‘ifrit granted him the remaining share of the blood debt and allowed the merchant to go free. For his part, the merchant went and thanked the old men, who congratulated him on his safety, after which each of them went home. This, however, is not more surprising than the tale of the fisherman.’ When the king asked what that was, she went on:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that there once was a poor, elderly fisherman with a wife and three children, who was in the habit of casting his net exactly four times each day. He went out to the shore at noon one day, put down his basket, tucked up his shirt, waded into the sea and cast his net. He waited until it had sunk down before pulling its cords together and then, finding it heavy, he tried unsuccessfully to drag it in. He took one end of it to the shore and fixed it to a peg that he drove in there, after which he stripped and dived into the sea beside it, where he continued tugging until he managed to get it up. He climbed out delightedly, put his clothes back on and went up to the net, only to find that what was in it was a dead donkey, and that the donkey had made a hole in the net. The fisherman was saddened by this and recited the formula: ‘There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent,’ before saying: ‘This is a strange thing that God has given me by way of food!’ and then reciting:
You who court danger, diving in the dark of night,
Give up; your efforts do not win your daily bread from God.
The fisherman rises to earn his keep;
There is the sea, with stars woven in the sky.
He plunges in, buffeted by waves,
His eyes fixed on his billowing net.
Happy with his night’s work, he takes back home
A fish, its jaw caught up on his pronged hook.
This fish is bought from him by one who spent his night
Out of the cold, enjoying his comforts.
Praise be to God, Who gives and Who deprives;
For one man eats the fish; another catches it.
He encouraged himself, saying that Almighty God would show favour and reciting:
When you are faced with hardship, clothe yourself
In noble patience; that is more resolute.
Do not complain, then, to God’s servants; you complain
To those who have no mercy of the Merciful.
He freed the donkey from the net, which he then wrung out before spreading it out again and going back into the sea. Invoking the Name of God, he made another cast, waited until the net had settled, and found it heavier and more difficult to move than before. Thinking that it must be full of fish, he fastened it to his peg, stripped off his clothes and dived in to free it. After tugging at it he got it up on shore, only to discover that what was in it was a large jar full of sand and mud. Saddened by this sight, he recited:
Troubles of Time, give up!
Stop, even if you have not had enough.
I came out look
ing for my daily bread,
But I have found there is no more of this.
How many a fool reaches the Pleiades!
How many wise men lie hidden in the earth!
The fisherman threw away the jar, wrung out his net, cleaned it and went back a third time to the sea, asking God to forgive him. He made his cast and waited for the net to settle before drawing it in, and this time what he found in it were bits of pots, bottles and bones. He was furious and, shedding bitter tears, he recited:
You have no power at all over your daily bread;
Neither learning nor letters will fetch it for you.
Fortune and sustenance are divided up;
One land is fertile while another suffers drought.
Time’s changes bring down cultured men,
While fortune lifts the undeserving up.
Come, death, and visit me, for life is vile;
Falcons are brought down low while ducks are raised on high.
Feel no surprise if you should see a man of excellence
In poverty, while an inferior holds sway.
One bird circles the earth from east to west;
Another gets its food but does not have to move.
He then looked up to heaven and said: ‘O my God, You know that I only cast my net four times a day. I have done this thrice and got nothing, so this time grant me something on which to live.’ He pronounced the Name of God and cast his net into the sea. He waited until it had settled and then he tried to pull it in, but found that it had snagged on the bottom. He recited the formula: ‘There is no power and no might except with God,’ and went on:
How wretched is this kind of world
That leaves us in such trouble and distress!
In the morning it may be that things go well,
But I must drink destruction’s cup when evening comes.
Yet when it is asked who leads the easiest life,
Men would reply that this was I.
The fisherman stripped off his clothes and, after diving in, he worked his hardest to drag the net to shore. Then, when he opened it up, he found in it a brass bottle with a lead seal, imprinted with the inscription of our master Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. The fisherman was delighted to see this, telling himself that it would fetch ten gold dinars if he sold it in the brass market. He shook it and, discovering that it was heavy as well as sealed, he said to himself: ‘I wonder what is in it? I’ll open it up and have a look before selling it.’ He took out a knife and worked on the lead until he had removed it from the bottle, which he then put down on the ground, shaking it in order to pour out its contents. To his astonishment, at first nothing came out, but then there emerged smoke which towered up into the sky and spread over the surface of the ground. When it had all come out, it collected and solidified; a tremor ran through it and it became an ‘ifrit with his head in the clouds and his feet on the earth. His head was like a dome, his hands were like winnowing forks and his feet like ships’ masts. He had a mouth like a cave with teeth like rocks, while his nostrils were like jugs and his eyes like lamps. He was dark and scowling.
When he saw this ‘ifrit the fisherman shuddered; his teeth chattered; his mouth dried up and he could not see where he was going. At the sight of him the ‘ifrit exclaimed: ‘There is no god but the God of Solomon, His prophet. Prophet of God, do not kill me for I shall never disobey you again in word or in deed.’ ‘‘Ifrit,’ the fisherman said, ‘you talk of Solomon, the prophet of God, but Solomon died eighteen hundred years ago and we are living in the last age of the world. What is your story and how did you come to be in this bottle?’ To which the ‘ifrit replied: ‘There is no god but God. I have good news for you, fisherman.’ ‘What is that?’ the fisherman asked, and the ‘ifrit said: ‘I am now going to put you to the worst of deaths.’ ‘For this good news, leader of the ‘ifrits,’ exclaimed the fisherman, ‘you deserve that God’s protection be removed from you, you damned creature. Why should you kill me and what have I done to deserve this? It was I who saved you from the bottom of the sea and brought you ashore.’
But the ‘ifrit said: ‘Choose what death you want and how you want me to kill you.’ ‘What have I done wrong,’ asked the fisherman, ‘and why are you punishing me?’ The ‘ifrit replied: ‘Listen to my story,’ and the fisherman said: ‘Tell it, but keep it short as I am at my last gasp.’ ‘Know, fisherman,’ the ‘ifrit told him, ‘that I was one of the apostate jinn, and that together with Sakhr, the jinni, I rebelled against Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. Solomon sent his vizier, Asaf, to fetch me to him under duress, and I was forced to go with him in a state of humiliation to stand before Solomon. “I take refuge with God!” exclaimed Solomon when he saw me, and he then offered me conversion to the Faith and proposed that I enter his service. When I refused, he called for this bottle, in which he imprisoned me, sealing it with lead and imprinting on it the Greatest Name of God. Then, at his command, the jinn carried me off and threw me into the middle of the sea.
‘For a hundred years I stayed there, promising myself that I would give whoever freed me enough wealth to last him for ever, but the years passed and no one rescued me. For the next hundred years I told myself that I would open up all the treasures of the earth for my rescuer, but still no one rescued me. Four hundred years later, I promised that I would grant three wishes, but when I still remained imprisoned, I became furiously angry and said to myself that I would kill whoever saved me, giving him a choice of how he wanted to die. It is you who are my rescuer, and so I allow you this choice.’
When the fisherman heard this, he exclaimed in wonder at his bad luck in freeing the ‘ifrit now, and he went on: ‘Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you.’ ‘I must kill you,’ insisted the ‘ifrit, ‘and so choose how you want to die.’ Ignoring this, the fisherman made another appeal, calling on the ‘ifrit to show gratitude for his release. ‘It is only because you freed me that I am going to kill you,’ repeated the ‘ifrit, at which the fisherman said: ‘Lord of the ‘ifrits, I have done you good and you are repaying me with evil. The proverbial lines are right where they say:
We did them good; they did its opposite,
And this, by God, is how the shameless act.
Whoever helps those who deserve no help,
Will be like one who rescues a hyena.’
‘Don’t go on so long,’ said the ‘ifrit when he heard this, ‘for death is coming to you.’ The fisherman said to himself: ‘This is a jinni and I am a human. God has given me sound intelligence which I can use to find a way of destroying him, whereas he can only use vicious cunning.’ So he asked: ‘Are you definitely going to kill me?’ and when the ‘ifrit confirmed this, he said: ‘I conjure you by the Greatest Name inscribed on the seal of Solomon and ask you to give me a truthful answer to a question that I have.’ ‘I shall,’ replied the ‘ifrit, who had been shaken and disturbed by the mention of the Greatest Name, and he went on: ‘Ask your question but be brief.’ The fisherman went on: ‘You say you were in this bottle, but there is not room in it for your hand or your foot, much less all the rest of you.’ ‘You don’t believe that I was in it?’ asked the ‘ifrit, to which the fisherman replied: ‘I shall never believe it until I see it with my own eyes.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say.
When it was the fourth night, Dunyazad asked her to finish the story, if she was not sleepy, and so she went on:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the fisherman told the ‘ifrit that he would not believe him until he saw this with his own eyes, a shudder ran through the ‘ifrit and he became a cloud of smoke hovering over the sea. Then the smoke coalesced and entered the jar bit by bit until it was all there. Quickly the fisherman picked up the brass stopper with its inscription and put it over the mouth of the bottle. He called out to the ‘ifrit: ‘Ask me how you want to die. By God, I am going t
o throw you into the sea and then build myself a house in this place so that I can stop anyone who comes fishing by telling them that there is an ‘ifrit here who gives anyone who brings him up a choice of how he wants to be killed.’
When the ‘ifrit heard this and found himself imprisoned in the bottle, he tried to get out but could not, as he was prevented by Solomon’s seal, and he realized that the fisherman had tricked him. ‘I was only joking,’ he told the fisherman, who replied: ‘You are lying, you most despicable, foulest and most insignificant of ‘ifrits,’ and he took up the bottle. ‘No, no,’ called the ‘ifrit, but the fisherman said: ‘Yes, yes,’ at which the ‘ifrit asked him mildly and humbly what he intended to do with him. ‘I am going to throw you into the sea,’ the fisherman told him. ‘You may have been there for eighteen hundred years, but I shall see to it that you stay there until the Last Trump. Didn’t I say: “Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you”? But you refused and acted treacherously towards me. Now God has put you in my power and I shall do the same to you.’ ‘Open the bottle,’ implored the ‘ifrit, ‘so that I can do you good.’ ‘Damned liar,’ said the fisherman. ‘You and I are like the vizier of King Yunan and Duban the sage.’ ‘What is their story?’ asked the ‘ifrit, AND THE FISHERMAN REPLIED:
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 Page 5