The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights

by vol 02 (tr Malcolm C

  When Karim heard this, he realized that all this had happened because he had gone into the baths and he was full of regret when regret was no longer any use. He said: ‘How can this queen have anything to do with me? I don’t know her and I have never heard this name in all my life.’ ‘Don’t deny that you know her,’ said Shamhur. ‘I have proof that you do and that you stayed with her for two years.’ ‘No, I don’t know her,’ Karim insisted. ‘I have never seen her and the only time that I have heard of her is now, from you.’ Shamhur then produced a book, which he opened and studied before saying: ‘The snake queen will meet a man who will stay with her for two years. Then he will leave her and come back to the surface of the earth and when he goes into the baths his belly will turn black.’ He then told Karim: ‘Look at your belly,’ and when Karim did, he saw that it was black. ‘It has been black from the day of my birth,’ he said, but Shamhur told him: ‘I assigned three mamluks to every bath house with orders to watch everyone who entered, to look at their bellies and to report to me. When you went in, they looked and found that your belly was black and so they sent me word. I had not believed that I would meet you today, but the only thing that I want from you is for you to show me the place from where you came out, after which you can go about your business. We shall be able to seize the snake queen, and we have someone who will bring her to us.’

  Karim heard all this and was filled with bitter but futile regret at having entered the bath house. The emirs and viziers kept coming to press him to tell them about the queen, but without success, as he kept insisting that he had neither seen nor heard anything. Shamhur then summoned the executioner and, on his arrival, Shamhur ordered him to strip off Karim’s clothes and give him a severe beating.

  The executioner did this and the severity of the flogging brought Karim to the point of death. Shamhur told him: ‘We have evidence that you know where the snake queen is, so why deny it? Show us the place where you came out, for we have someone who can seize her, and you can then leave unharmed.’ He spoke with friendliness, allowed Karim to stand up and presented him with a robe of honour embellished with red gold and precious stones. Karim then said obediently: ‘I’ll show you the place,’ and when Shamhur heard this he was overjoyed and rode out at the head of his men, together with all his emirs, led by Karim.

  They rode on to the mountain, where Karim entered the cave, weeping in his distress. The emirs and viziers dismounted and walked behind him until they got to the well from which he had emerged. Shamhur came there and then sat down to release a cloud of incense, as he recited conjurations and spells, exhaling and muttering, for he was a skilled magician and diviner, with a knowledge of the spiritual world and other such matters. When he had finished his first spell he recited a second and then a third, and whenever the incense was used up he put more of it on the fire. Finally he called: ‘Snake queen, come out!’ At that, the water in the well sank out of sight, a great door opened and there was a loud cry like a thunderclap so that it seemed as though the well had collapsed. Everyone who was there fell to the ground unconscious, or, in some cases, dead. From the well emerged an enormous snake as big as an elephant with sparks like coals flashing from its eyes. On its back was a dish of red gold studded with pearls and other gems, and in the centre of the dish was a snake whose radiance illumined the place. It had a human face and clear speech. This was the snake queen. She looked to right and left before her glance fell on Karim, and she said to him: ‘Where is your covenant now and the oath that you swore for me that you would not enter the baths? But there is no way in which to avoid fate, nor can what is written on the forehead be avoided. God has arranged that my life should be ended by you, and this is His decree, as He intends that I should die and that King Karazdan should be cured of his disease.’ Then she wept bitterly and this moved Karim to shed tears of his own.

  When the damned vizier Shamhur saw the snake queen, he stretched out his hand to lay hold of her, but she said: ‘Draw back your hand, damn you, or otherwise I shall breathe on you and turn you into a heap of black ashes.’ She then called out to Karim and said: ‘Come and take me in your hand. Then put me on this plate that you have brought with you and carry it on your head, for it has been ordained from past eternity that I should die at your hands, and nothing can ward off this fate.’ So he took her and carried her on his head, at which the well resumed its former appearance. The whole party set off, with Karim carrying on his head the plate on which the queen had been placed. In the course of their journey, she said secretly to him: ‘Karim, listen to my advice, even though by acting as you have done you have broken your covenant and forsworn yourself, as was decreed by fate from before Time began.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ Karim replied, adding: ‘What is it that you tell me to do?’ She said: ‘When you get to the vizier’s house, he will tell you to kill me and to cut me into three pieces. Refuse and don’t do it, saying that you know nothing of butchery, so that he will have to kill me himself and do what he wants with me. When he has killed me and cut me up, a messenger will come from King Karazdan asking the vizier to come to him. He will place my flesh in a copper cooking pot which he will put on the stove before he goes to the king. He will tell you to light the fire beneath it and wait until froth comes from the flesh, when you are to take the froth, put it in a bottle and wait until it cools. You are then to drink it, he will say, after which you will never again suffer from any bodily pain. When it froths up a second time, he will tell you to keep this froth in another bottle, for him to take when he returns from the king in order to cure a disease in his loins. He will give you the two bottles before going to the king. When he has left, light the fire and take the first lot of froth that appears, put it in a bottle, but keep the bottle with you, taking care not to drink it, for if you do, it will do you no good. Put the second lot in the other bottle, wait until it is cold and keep it with you until you can drink it. When Shamhur comes back from the king and asks for the second bottle, give him the first and see what happens to him.’

  Nights 535 to 554

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the five hundred and thirty-fifth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the snake queen told Karim not to drink from the first lot of froth and to keep the second. The snake queen went on: ‘When the vizier comes back from the king and asks for the second bottle, give him the first and see what happens to him. You can then drink the second bottle, after which your heart will become a home of wisdom. Then take the flesh, put it on a copper plate and give it to the king to eat. When he does and it settles in his stomach, cover his face with a kerchief and wait until noon so that his stomach may cool down. Then give him something to drink and he will be cured of his illness and go back to being as healthy as ever he was, through the power of Almighty God. Listen to my advice and pay it the closest attention.’

  The party rode on to Shamhur’s house, where Shamhur told Karim to go in with him, and when they had done so the escort dispersed and went their own ways. Karim took the plate with the queen on it from his head, and Shamhur told him to kill her. ‘I know nothing of butchery,’ he replied, ‘and never in my life have I slaughtered anything. If you have some reason for doing this, do it yourself.’ So Shamhur took the queen from the plate and killed her. On seeing that, Karim wept bitterly and Shamhur laughed at him and said: ‘You silly fellow, why are you weeping for the death of a snake?’ After that, he cut the body into three pieces and put them in a copper pot, which he set over the fire. He sat there watching the flesh cooking, but while he was doing that a mamluk came to him to say that he was urgently wanted by the king. ‘To hear is to obey,’ said Shamhur, and he then got up and brought two bottles to Karim, telling him: ‘See to the fire under this pot. Wait until the first lot of froth appears as the flesh cooks, and when it does, scoop it off and put it in one of these bottles. Wait until it cools and then drink it, for this will make you healthy and never again will y
ou suffer bodily pain or sickness. When it froths a second time, put that froth in the other bottle and keep it by you until I get back from the king. I shall then drink it, as I suffer from a pain in my loins which it may cure.’

  Shamhur then went off to visit the king, having repeated his instructions to Karim, who for his part tended the fire beneath the pot until he was able to remove the first lot of froth, which he put in one of the two bottles. He kept this with him and continued to stoke the fire until the flesh frothed again. He scooped off this froth and put it in the second bottle, which he also kept. Then, when the meat was cooked, he took the pot off the fire and sat waiting for Shamhur to come back. When he did, he asked Karim what he had done and Karim told him that he had carried out his instructions. ‘What did you do with the first bottle?’ Shamhur asked him. ‘I have just drunk it,’ Karim said. ‘I can’t see that it has changed your body at all,’ said Shamhur, but Karim told him: ‘I feel that my whole body from head to foot is burning like fire.’ The wily Shamhur had, in fact, tried to trick him by hiding the truth from him, and he now said: ‘Give me the other bottle to drink, as it may cure the pain in my loins.’ It was, in fact, the contents of the first bottle that he drank, thinking that this was the second, and no sooner had he drunk than the bottle fell from his hand. His body immediately swelled up, showing the truth of the proverb ‘Whoever digs a pit for his brother will fall into it.’

  Karim, looking at this with astonishment, became afraid of drinking from the second bottle, but then he thought about the snake queen’s instructions and told himself: ‘If what is in the second bottle was noxious, the vizier wouldn’t have chosen it for himself.’ So, putting his trust in God, he drank, and God then flooded his heart with springs of wisdom, opening up for him the fountainhead of knowledge, so that he was filled with joy and delight. He took the flesh from the pot, put it on a copper dish and left Shamhur’s house. Looking up, he could see the seven heavens and all they contained as far as the lote tree at the furthest point of Paradise; he could see how the celestial sphere revolved, as God revealed all this for him; he saw the fixed stars and the orbits of the planets, and he saw the shape of both land and sea. From this he deduced the sciences of geometry, astrology, astronomy and the lore of the celestial sphere, as well as arithmetic and everything connected with it. He understood the ordering of the eclipses of the sun and the moon and other such matters. Then he looked down at the ground, noting stones, plants and trees and grasping all their characteristics and their uses. From this he deduced the science of medicine, natural magic and chemistry, as well as the art of manufacturing gold and silver.

  He walked on, carrying the flesh, until he came to King Karazdan’s palace. On entering it, he kissed the ground and wished the king health to compensate for the loss of his vizier Shamhur. The king was very angry at this and burst into tears, as did the other viziers, together with the emirs and ministers of state. Then he said: ‘Shamhur was with me just now and he was in the best of health. He left to fetch me the snake’s flesh, when it had been properly cooked. How did he come to die and what happened to him?’ Karim told him the whole story of how Shamhur had drunk from the bottle and how his stomach had then swollen uncontrollably until he died. The king was filled with grief and said to Karim: ‘What will become of me now that Shamhur is dead?’ ‘Do not concern yourself,’ replied Karim, ‘for I shall cure you within three days, leaving your body entirely free of disease.’ The delighted king told him: ‘All I want is to be cured of this leprosy, even if it takes years.’

  Karim rose and fetched the pot, which he put down in front of the king. Then he took some of the snake queen’s flesh and fed it to him, afterwards covering him up and spreading a kerchief over his face. He sat beside him and told him to sleep, which he did from noon until sunset, by which time the piece of flesh had made its way round his stomach. After that, Karim woke him, gave him something to drink and then told him to go to sleep again. He slept all night long until morning, and when it was light Karim repeated his treatment of the day before. Over a period of three days he gave the king three pieces of flesh, after which the king’s skin dried up and then peeled off. He began to sweat, with the sweat running from his head down to his feet, after which he was cured, with no trace of illness left in his body. ‘You must now go to the baths,’ Karim told him, and when he had been taken there and brought out again, his body was like a silver rod and he recovered his health, becoming fitter than he had ever been. He put on his finest clothes, took his seat on his throne and gave permission to Karim to sit beside him. A table was spread at his command, and after the two of them had eaten and washed their hands he had wine brought in, and when this was done they both drank.

  The king now collected all the emirs, viziers and troops, together with the grandees of his state and his principal subjects, all of whom congratulated him on his successful cure, and drums were beaten as the city was adorned with decorations in honour of his recovery. When they were all collected he said: ‘Viziers, emirs and officials of state, know that I have appointed this man, Hasib Karim al-Din, who has cured me of leprosy, as my grand vizier in place of the vizier Shamhur.’

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the five hundred and thirty-sixth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the king told his viziers and the grandees of his state that he had been cured of his disease by Hasib Karim al-Din, and had appointed him as his grand vizier in place of Shamhur. The king went on: ‘Whoever loves him loves me; whoever honours him shows honour to me and whoever obeys him obeys me.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ they all said, and they rose, kissed Karim’s hand, greeted him and congratulated him on his new office. The king presented him with a splendid robe of honour embroidered with red gold and studded with pearls and other gems, the least of which was worth five thousand dinars, together with three hundred mamluks, three hundred concubines shining like moons, three hundred Abyssinian slave girls and five hundred mules laden with money, together with cattle, sheep and goats, buffaloes and cows such as would be tedious to describe. After this, the king told his officers of state, his principal officials, mamluks and all his other subjects to present Karim with gifts.

  Karim, followed by the viziers, emirs and state officials, rode to the palace that the king had cleared for him and took his seat on a chair. His escort came to kiss his hand again, offering their congratulations on his appointment and presenting their services. His delighted mother added her congratulations, as did his family, and they were all filled with joy. His former companions, the woodcutters, then arrived with their felicitations and after that he mounted and rode to the palace of Shamhur, which he sealed up, taking possession of all its contents and having them moved to his own palace.

  The total ignoramus, who had not been able to read or write, was now, through the power of Almighty God, a master of all branches of learning, the fame of whose knowledge and wisdom spread through all the lands. He won renown for the depth of his knowledge of medicine, astronomy, geometry, astrology, chemistry, natural magic and the spiritual sciences, as well as others.

  One day, he said to his mother: ‘Mother, Daniel, my father, was a wise and excellent man, so tell me, what books and other things did he leave behind?’ When she heard this, his mother produced the chest in which Daniel had placed the five pages that were all that was left of the books that had been lost at sea, and she told Karim that there was nothing more than what was in the chest. Karim opened it, took out the five pages and, when he had read them, he told his mother that they were part of a book and asked her where the rest of it was. She said that Daniel had taken all his books to sea with him and when his ship had been wrecked they had been lost. ‘Almighty God saved him from drowning,’ she told him, ‘but these five pages were all that was left of his books. When he came back from his voyage I was pregnant with you and he said: “You may give birth to a boy, so take these pages and keep them with you
and when he grows up and asks what I left him, give them to him and tell him that these are his only legacy.” Here they are for you.’ Karim then mastered all the sciences and remained there, eating and drinking and enjoying the pleasantest of lives until he was visited by the destroyer of delights and the parter of companions.

  This is the end of the story of Hasib, son of Daniel, may God have mercy on him, and God knows better what is the truth.

  Shahrazad said: ‘The story of Hasib Karim al-Din is not more remarkable than that of Sindbad.’ ‘How is that?’ said the king, and she continued: ‘In the time of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, the Commander of the Faithful, there was in the city of Baghdad a man called Sindbad the porter, a poor fellow who earned his living by carrying goods on his head. On one particularly hot day he was tired, sweating and feeling the heat with a heavy load, when he passed by the door of a merchant’s house. The ground in front of it had been swept and sprinkled with water and a temperate breeze was blowing. As there was a wide bench at the side of the house, he set down his bundle in order to rest there and to sniff the breeze.’