I shall forgive Time all its evil deeds.
Then I recited:
When she came close to say farewell, she and her heart
Were allies there to longing and to love.
She wept moist pearls, while my tears, as they flowed,
Were like carnelians, forming a necklace on her breast.
On seeing the girls’ tears, I swore that I would never open the forbidden room, and after I had said goodbye, they went outside and flew away. So I sat in the palace by myself and when evening approached, I opened the door to the first chamber and went in. There I found a virtual paradise, a garden with green trees, ripe fruits, tuneful birds and gushing waters. I felt at rest as I walked among the trees, smelling sweet-scented flowers and listening to the song of the birds as they glorified the One God, the Omnipotent. I looked at apples whose colour was midway between red and yellow, as the poet has said:
An apple’s nature has combined two shades –
The beloved’s cheek and the complexion of the timorous lover.
Then I looked at quinces that put to shame the scent of musk and ambergris, as the poet has said:
Within the quince are all mankind’s delights;
Its fame surpasses every other fruit.
Its taste is wine and its scent diffused musk,
Golden in colour, shaped like the full moon.
I then looked at apricots whose beauty delighted the eye like polished rubies, and after that I left the chamber and locked the door again. Next day I opened the door to the second chamber, went in and found a large space, with date palms and a flowing stream whose banks were carpeted with rose bushes, jasmine, marjoram, eglantine, narcissus and gillyflowers. Breezes passed over these scented flowers and the scent spread in all directions, filling me with perfect happiness. I left this chamber, locked the door behind me and opened the third. Here I found a hall, paved with coloured marble, valuable minerals and precious stones. In it were cages of sandalwood and aloes wood, with singing birds, such as the nightingale, the ringdove, blackbirds, turtledoves and the Nubian song thrush. I was delighted by this; my cares were dispelled and I slept there until morning. Then I opened the fourth door to discover a large chamber with forty closets whose doors were standing open. I went in and saw an indescribable quantity of pearls, sapphires, topazes, emeralds and other precious stones. In my astonishment I exclaimed: ‘I do not think that there is a single king who has all this in his treasury.’ Joy filled me, my cares leaving me, and I said: ‘I am the supreme ruler of the age; my wealth is a gift granted me by God’s grace; the forty girls are under my authority, and they have no other man besides me.’ I went from place to place until thirty-nine days had passed, during which time I had opened all the rooms except for the one whose door I had been told not to open.
This one, which made the number up to forty, preoccupied me and, in order to bring me misery, Satan incited me to open it. I could not hold out against this, and so with only one day left before the girls were due to return, I went to the chamber, opened the door and went in. I found a fragrance the like of which I had never smelt before. It overcame my senses and I fell down in a faint, which lasted for an hour. Then I plucked up my courage and went further into the room, whose floor I found spread with saffron. Light was given by lamps of gold and candles from which was diffused the scent of musk and ambergris, and I saw two huge censers, each filled with aloes wood, ambergris and honeyed perfume whose scent filled the room. I saw a horse, black as darkest night, in front of which was a manger of clear crystal, filled with husked sesame, together with a similar manger filled with rosewater scented with musk. The horse was harnessed and bridled and its saddle was of red gold.
When I saw this, I was astonished and said to myself: ‘There must be something of great importance here.’ Satan led me further astray and so I took hold of the horse and mounted it. It didn’t move and so I kicked it, and when it still refused to move, I took the whip and struck it. As soon as it felt the blow, it neighed with a sound like rumbling thunder and, opening up a pair of wings, it flew off with me, carrying me up into the sky way above the ground. After a time, it set me down on a flat roof and whisked its tail across my face, striking out my right eye and causing it to slide down my cheek. It then left me and I came down from the roof to find the ten one-eyed youths. ‘No welcome to you,’ they said. ‘Here I am,’ I replied. ‘I have become like you, and I want you to give me a tray of grime with which to blacken my face and to let me sit with you.’ ‘No, by God,’ they said, ‘you may not do that. Get out!’
They drove me away, leaving me in dire straits, thinking over the misfortunes that had overtaken me. I was sad at heart and tearful when I parted from them, and I said to myself in a low voice: ‘I was resting at my ease, but my inquisitiveness would not leave me.’ So I shaved off my beard and whiskers and wandered from place to place. God decreed that I should remain safe and I reached Baghdad yesterday evening, where I found these two men standing in perplexity. I greeted them and introduced myself as a stranger. ‘We too are strangers,’ they said, so we agreed to go together, all of us being dervishes and all being blind in the right eye. This, lady, is why I am clean shaven and have lost my eye.
‘You can touch your forelock and go,’ she told him, but he replied: ‘Not before I have heard what these other people have to say.’
The lady of the house then turned to the caliph, Ja‘far and Masrur and said: ‘Tell me your story.’ Ja‘far came forward and told her the story that he had told to the doorkeeper when they entered and when she heard this, she allowed them all to leave. In the lane outside, the caliph asked the dervishes where they were proposing to go as dawn had not yet broken. When they said that they did not know, he told them to come and spend the night with him. ‘Take them,’ he said to Ja‘far, ‘and bring them to me in the morning, so that we may write down what has happened.’ Ja‘far did as he was told and the caliph went up to his palace, but found himself unable to sleep that night.
In the morning, he took his seat on the imperial throne, and when his officials had assembled, he turned to Ja‘far and told him to bring the three ladies, the two bitches and the three dervishes. Ja‘far got up and brought them all, the ladies being veiled. Ja‘far turned to them and said: ‘You are forgiven because of your earlier kindness, although you did not know who we were. I can tell you now that you are standing before the fifth of the caliphs of the Banu ‘Abbas, Harun al-Rashid, the brother of Musa al-Hadi and son of al-Mahdi Muhammad, the son of Abu Ja‘far al-Mansur, the son of Muhammad, the brother of al-Saffah, son of Muhammad. You are to tell nothing but the truth.’
When the ladies heard what Ja‘far had said as spokesman for the Commander of the Faithful, the eldest of them came forward and said to the caliph: ‘Commander of the Faithful, mine is a story which, were it written with needles on the inner corners of the eyeballs of mankind, would serve as a warning to those who take heed and counsel to those who profit from counsel.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the seventeenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that when the lady of the house stood before the caliph, SHE SAID:
Mine is a strange story. The two black bitches are my sisters. Three of us were full sisters and these two, the doorkeeper and the housekeeper, were born of a different mother. When our father died, each of us took her share of the inheritance. Some days later, my mother died, leaving us three thousand dinars, and so each of us, I being the youngest, inherited a thousand dinars. My sisters were thus equipped with dowries and each married. Their husbands stayed for a time, but then they collected trade goods and, each of them taking a thousand dinars from his wife, they all went off on a voyage together, leaving me behind. They were away for five years, during which time the men lost their money and were ruined, abandoning their wives in foreign parts.
After five years, my eldest sister came to me in the most squalid of
states, dressed as a beggar, with tattered clothes and a dirty old shawl. When I saw her, I didn’t recognize her at first and took no notice of her. Then, realizing who she was, I asked her what had happened, but she said: ‘It is no use talking, sister, the pen of fate has written God’s decree.’ So I sent her to the baths, gave her clothes to wear and said: ‘Sister, you have been given to me in exchange for my father and mother. My share of what the three of us inherited has been blest by God and it has allowed me to thrive and become prosperous. You and I are equal partners.’ I treated her with all kindness and she stayed with me for a whole year.
We were concerned about our other sister, but it was not long before she too arrived in an even worse plight than the eldest. I treated her even better than I had treated her sister and both of them shared in my wealth. Some time later, they told me that they wanted to marry again as they could not bear to remain without husbands. ‘My dears,’ I said, ‘there is no longer any benefit to be got from marriage and good men are hard to find now. I don’t see any advantage in your proposal and you have already had experience of marriage.’ My sisters did not accept that and married without my approval although I covered all their costs. They then left with their husbands, who very soon afterwards played them false, took all that they had and went off, abandoning them.
Once again they came back to me, covered in shame, apologized and said: ‘Don’t blame us. You may be younger than us but you are more intelligent; we shall never again mention marriage, so take us as your slave girls that we may have a bite to eat.’ ‘Welcome, sisters,’ I said. ‘No one is dearer to me than you.’ And I kissed them and honoured them even more than before. This went on for a full year, after which I decided to fit out a ship to go to Basra. I chose a large one and loaded it with goods, merchandise and everything needed for the voyage. I asked my sisters whether they would prefer to sit at home until I returned from my voyage or whether they would like to come with me. ‘We will go with you,’ they said, ‘as we cannot bear to be parted from you,’ and so I took them along.
I had divided my wealth in two, taking half with me and leaving the other half behind, with the idea that, were the ship to be wrecked and we survived, there would be something to support us on our return. We sailed for some days and nights, but the ship then went astray as the captain had not kept to the right course, and without realizing it, we were sailing in the wrong direction. This went on for some time and over a period of ten days we had fair winds. After that, the lookout climbed up to investigate; he called out: ‘Good news!’ and came down full of joy and told us that he had seen what looked like a city resembling a dove. We were delighted and, within an hour, we could see the place in the distance. We asked the captain its name, but he said: ‘By God, I don’t know. I have never seen it before and never in my life have I sailed on this sea. But things have turned out safely and all we have to do is put in to harbour. Look out your merchandise and if you can sell, sell and then buy up whatever is there; if that does not work, we can rest here for two days, buy provisions and go on with our voyage.’
We put in and the captain went up to the city. He was away for a time and when he came back he told us: ‘Come up and wonder at what God has done to those He created, and seek refuge from His anger.’ We went to the city and when we came to the gate, we saw that it was guarded by men with sticks in their hands, but when we got nearer we found that they had been turned to stone, while in the city itself we found that everyone had been transformed to black stone and there was no trace of life. We were astonished, but as we threaded our way through the markets, we discovered that the traders’ wares and the gold and silver had remained unchanged. This delighted us and, thinking that there must be some mystery here, we split up and walked through the city streets, each concerned to collect her own booty, money and fabrics.
I myself went to the castle, which turned out to be strongly fortified, and I then entered the royal apartments, where all the utensils were made of gold and silver. There I saw the king wearing robes of bewildering splendour, seated with his chamberlains, officers and viziers. When I approached, I found that he was sitting on a throne studded with pearls and gems, wearing cloth of gold, with every jewel gleaming like a star. Standing around him were fifty mamluks, dressed in silks of various kinds, with drawn swords in their stone hands – an astonishing sight. I then walked into the hall of the harem, whose walls were covered with hangings of silk with gold-embroidered branches. The queen was there asleep, wearing a robe ornamented with fresh pearls. On her head was a crown studded with gemstones of all kinds, while around her neck were necklaces of all sorts. Everything she was wearing, dress and ornaments, was unchanged, but she herself had been transformed to black stone.
I then found an open door and went up to it. There were seven steps and these led to a chamber whose marble floor was spread with gold-embroidered carpets. In it there was a couch made of juniper wood, inset with pearls and precious stones, together with two large emeralds, covered by a pearl-studded hanging. There was also a door from which I could see a light shining. I went to stand over it and there in the centre on a small chair I found a jewel the size of a duck’s egg, burning like a candle and shedding light, while spread over the couch was an amazing array of silks. The sight filled me with astonishment. On looking further, I saw lighted candles. ‘Someone must have lit these,’ I said to myself, and I then went to another room and proceeded to search all through the building, forgetting myself in my astonishment at all this and plunged in thought.
I continued exploring until nightfall, but then, wishing to leave, I found I had lost my way and had no idea where the gate was. So I went back to the chamber with the lighted candles, sat down on the couch and, after reciting a portion of the Quran, wrapped myself in a coverlet, trying in vain to sleep but becoming uneasy. Then at midnight I heard a beautiful voice reciting the Quran. This filled me with joy and I followed the sound until I came to a small room whose door was shut. I opened it and looked inside, to find a chapel with a prayer niche in which hung lighted lamps together with two candles. In this chapel a prayer rug had been put down and on this sat a handsome young man with, before him, a copy of the holy Quran from which he was reading.
Wondering how he alone had been saved from out of all the inhabitants of the city, I entered and greeted him. He looked up and returned my greeting, at which I said: ‘By the truth of what you have recited from the Book of God, I implore you to answer my question.’ He looked at me, smiling, and replied: ‘Servant of God, do you tell me why you came here and I will tell you what happened to me and the people of this city and how it was that I escaped.’ So I told him my story, which filled him with wonder, and then I asked him about the townspeople. ‘Wait, sister,’ he said, and he then closed the Quran and put it into a bag of satin, before making me sit beside him. When I looked at him, I saw him to be the moon when it comes to the full, excellent in his attributes, supple and handsome; his appearance was like a sugar stick, with a well-proportioned frame. As the poet has said:
To the astrologer watching by night
Appeared a beautiful form dressed in twin robes.
Saturn had granted him black hair,
Colouring his temples with the shade of musk.
From Mars derived the redness of his cheek,
While Sagittarius shot arrows from his eyelids.
Mercury supplied keenness of mind
While the Bear forbade the slanderers to look at him.
The astrologer was bewildered by what he saw
And the ground before him was kissed by the full moon.
Almighty God had clothed him in the robe of perfection and embroidered it with the beauty and splendour of the down of his cheek, as the poet has said:
I swear by the intoxication of his eyelids,
By his waist and by the arrows that his magic shoots,
By the smoothness of his flanks, the sharpness of his glance,
His white complexion and the darkness of hi
s hair,
His eyebrow that denies sleep to my eye,
Controlling me as he orders and forbids,
By his rosy cheek and the myrtle of its down,
By the carnelian of his mouth, his pearly teeth,
By his neck and by the beauty of his form,
With pomegranates showing on his chest,
By his haunches that quiver whether he moves or is still,
By his slender waist and by his silken touch,
The lightness of his spirit and all the beauty he encompasses.
I swear by his generous hand and by his truthful tongue,
His high birth and his lofty rank.
For those who know of musk, it is his scent,
And he it is who spreads the scent of ambergris.
Compared with him the radiant sun
Is nothing but the paring of a fingernail.
The glance that I gave him was followed by a thousand sighs and love for him was fixed in my heart. ‘My master,’ I said, ‘answer my question.’ ‘Willingly,’ he replied, and he went on: ‘Know, servant of God, that this is my father’s city and he is the king whom you saw sitting on the throne turned into black stone, while the queen whom you saw in the hall is my mother. All the people of the city were Magians, worshipping fire rather than Almighty God. They would swear by fire, light, shadows, the heat of the sun and the circling sphere. After my father had for long been without a son, late in his life I was born to him. He brought me up until I was a grown man, and good fortune always preceded me. With us there was an old Muslim woman who believed in God and His Apostle in secret, while in public she followed the practices of my people. My father had faith in her because he saw that she was trustworthy and chaste, and he showed her great respect, thinking that she was his co-religionary. When I grew older he entrusted me to her, saying: “Take him; give him a good upbringing; ground him in the tenets of our faith and look after him.” When she had taken me, she taught me about the religion of Islam with the obligations of ritual purification and of prayer, and she made me learn the Quran by heart, telling me to worship none but Almighty God. When she had done all this, she told me to keep it hidden from my father and not to tell him lest he kill me. So I kept the secret for a few days, but then the old woman died and the people of the city sank ever further into unbelief and presumptuous error.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 Page 16