Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) (56 page)

When she caught sight of him she called out: ‘What are you?’ ‘I am a son of Adam,’ he told her, adding: ‘and I said that I was not the man.’ The servant agreed with this and the queen said: ‘Wretched slave, where did you get this man from?’ He told her: ‘From such-and-such a furnace,’ and she asked the man whether there was anyone there apart from him. ‘Yes, my boy,’ he told her, and she instructed her servant to go off with him and fetch her the boy, while she would not take back what she had given to the furnace-man.

The servant went off with this black man, who went ahead of him to the young prince, after he had come back from the market. He went up and slapped him, saying: ‘How many times have I told you, you miserable fellow, to serve me until you prosper and I bring you wealth and make something of you, but all I hear is “no!” Get up now, get up and go.’

The prince did as he was told and mounted the mule, after which the servant took him to the baths, where he was cleaned up and put to rights, with his long hair being trimmed. When he left the baths he was dressed in a robe worth five hundred dinars and he rode off with the servant to the queen’s palace where he dismounted from the mule. He was about to go in when behind him came the furnace-man. ‘Damn you, where are you going?’ the servant asked, to which the man replied: ‘I’m going in with my boy.’ The servant shouted at him and struck him, after which he went back and left the prince, who went on.

Permission was asked for him to enter the queen’s presence and when this had been granted he went into a long hall crowded with retainers and servants. The luxury and wealth that he saw made him forget his father’s realm as well as the shame and humiliation to which he had been reduced. The servant led him on until the curtain was removed and he saw what he had not seen the first time. It was as the poet says:

She came out from behind the curtains and I said:

To God be glory, Who created forms.

I used to think that the sun was unique,

Until I saw its sister amongst men.

He was robbed of his wits and reduced to confusion as the queen had taken over his whole heart.

She made him sit beside her and then called for food. When it had
been brought she started to feed him with mouthfuls, jumping on to his knees and kissing him until they had both eaten enough. The food was then removed and wine produced, from which they drank until evening. The queen got up and went to a closet where she slept, while the prince slept where he was until morning.

For three days they went on like this, eating and drinking and enjoying friendly conversation. On the fourth she summoned him and said: ‘You see what luxury you are experiencing but for my part I want my clothes.’ ‘I didn’t see them,’ the prince assured her, ‘for when you were brought in, you were just as you saw yourself later.’ ‘Which would you prefer,’ she asked, ‘your present luxury and the fact that you can enjoy looking at me, or clothes worth five hundred dinars? If you bring them to me I shall present you with ten thousand dinars.’ On hearing that he said: ‘They are buried beside the furnace.’ ‘Go off,’ she said, ‘and bring them back quickly, after which you can have what I promised.’

The prince went to the furnace room and dug up the clothes. When he returned them to the queen, her face lit up with joy and she said: ‘I knew that you had them because you had told me that the fire had had no effect on me when you took me out, for I realized that had I not been wearing them I would have been nothing more than a lump of black charcoal. You must know that in this pocket is a pearl that commands the services of a hundred
jinn
tribes and I shall show you some of what it can do.’ She unfastened her collar and removed a small necklace from which she took a pearl on which were lines of writing. She put it on the ground and said: ‘Servants of these Names, I conjure you by the Greatest Name of God, engraved on this pearl, to come here obediently.’

Immediately three
jinn
were standing there, each eleven cubits tall, with ugly shapes, eyes set lengthwise, hooves like those of cattle and talons like those of wild beasts. The prince was horrified and bitterly regretted that he had not known about the pearl. They asked the queen for her orders and she said: ‘Go at once and bring me the four men who wanted to burn me, whether they are up in the sky or down in the earth.’ The three
jinn
left for a time and then came back with four men chained and shackled in the worst of states. The queen looked at them and said: ‘Damn you, what harm did I do to you to prompt you to repay me like that? Cut off their heads.’ The prince saw the heads flying through the air and the queen ordered that the bodies should be carried away and thrown into the sea. When this had been done she dismissed the three.

The prince said: ‘She turned to me and said: “I had taken these as boon companions, eating and drinking with them. They enjoyed my youth but all they wanted was vile fornication. I was a virgin, and had there not been four of them they would have got what they wanted, but they were jealous and schemed against each other until they all agreed to throw me into the furnace. God protected me from their evil thanks to the blessing of this pearl and the Greatest Name inscribed on it.”

‘She then looked at me and said: “My clothes are worth a thousand dinars”, and she told her maid to fetch the money. Twenty purses were brought each containing a thousand dinars and she told me to take these and open a shop. I was to eat and drink with her and she said: “If you need a horse, all of them are yours and the house is handed over to you and is under your authority, but it is only occasionally that I will come back to drink with you.” ’

The prince said: ‘Lady, no kingdom on the face of the earth is worth a single clipping from your nails. Am I to open a shop and not see your lovely face again?’ ‘I swear that I shall not cut you off from me,’ she answered and, calling for a copy of the Qur’an, she was about to take an oath on this when he told her: ‘This is on condition that you swear to let me stay with you for forty days, not leaving you and carrying on as we have been doing.’ She agreed and, calling on God, she swore to his condition, before making him swear that he would not betray her as long as he was with her. They exchanged these oaths confidently, trusting one another, and then resumed the sportive pleasures that they had enjoyed before, coupled with wine drinking.

They continued to enjoy the most pleasant of lives until thirty-five of the forty days had passed, but the prince’s heart was consumed by an unquenchable fire. Of the two reasons for this, one was the torment inflicted by his love for the queen, a love that he could not bring to its conclusion, while the second was her pearl. As he had only five days left, he began to think of some trick that he might play. He had a druggist friend with whom he sometimes used to sit when he left the queen, and he told her one day that he was going to go out and walk in the market. ‘God be with you,’ she said and he went to the man’s shop and talked with him for a time. Then he said: ‘Sir, there is something I want to tell you but I feel embarrassed.’ ‘What is it?’ asked the man, ‘and why are you embarrassed?’ ‘I have married a formidable-looking girl,’ the prince said, ‘and every time I come hoping to uncover her face she stops me and there is nothing I can do with her.’ The druggist agreed to help and
the prince took out two dinars and gave them to him. At the sight of the gold the man reached out for a small box from which he removed a number of things which he put in a twist of paper, saying: ‘The dose is one
qirat
and no more, or else she won’t wake up for three days.’ The prince agreed to this and took the drug which he put down under his collar, after which he left and returned to his palace.

When he went in, he found the girl seated and she got up and seated him beside her on the couch. They started to eat and drink and went on until evening. He distracted her attention for a time pretending to be drunk. He filled a glass and gave it to her after which he filled another and drank it himself. Then, after having filled yet another, he pretended to scratch behind his ear. From this he removed a quarter of a dirham’s weight of
banj
which he put in the glass and handed it to her. No sooner had it passed her lips than it went to her head. The prince took her in his arms and laid her on the bed, where he started to kiss her, using his hands to strip her clothes from her breast. He saw that her waistband was fastened with twenty knots and he started to untie them one after the other. When he had undone ten, he saw the pearl fastened in the eleventh but as he was about to undo it he received a blow on the back of his neck that knocked him down on to his face. Standing over his head was an old woman like a vulture, who was saying: ‘You boor, what about the oath you took? You have betrayed it together with the covenants you made. Didn’t you see how the four kidnappers lost their heads but not to a sword. Did you think that you would get off unscathed after uncovering her face?’

The prince tried to trick her, saying: ‘Lady, I was carried away by drunkenness and love, and you know how love turns men over on their heads.’ ‘I forgive you,’ she said, ‘and so you can both sleep, embrace, and kiss, with me watching you.’ ‘God is not going to hide you away, you ill-omened old woman,’ the prince said to himself, and he turned to the queen’s clothes with no other thought than to free the pearl. When he had done this, he put it in his mouth and then got up and said: ‘You ill-omened old woman, are you not going to let me uncover her face?’ ‘What are you saying, boor?’ she said; ‘has drunkenness got the better of you?’ ‘By God, lady,’ he told her, ‘I am only joking and tomorrow morning I want you to say nothing to the queen.’ She swore to this and then took him to a bedroom and locked him in, after which she went to the girl and refastened the knots he had undone, before going off to her own room to sleep.

When the prince had settled down he remembered his own country, what had happened to his family and how he had been driven from his kingdom. He took out the pearl and told himself that he should try it to see whether it could help. He placed it on the ground and said: ‘Servants of these Names, I conjure you by the Greatest Name of God, to take me this instant to my own palace.’ Before he had stopped speaking he saw himself flying between earth and sky.
[lac.
] He found himself coming down from the roof to the centre of the palace where he saw the royal throne with his father’s mamluk, Qaraqush, sleeping on it surrounded by young mamluks and servants, all of whom were asleep. He took a few steps forwards and kicked Qaraqush in the ribs so that he woke in alarm.

He was frightened by the sight of the prince and said to himself that he could not have attacked the palace unless his own officials had turned to him. Then, when he looked, he saw his own mamluks asleep while there was no one with the prince, who had neither sword nor armour. This raised his hopes for he thought that the prince must have hidden himself away in the palace. He got to his feet and said: ‘Boor, do you think that those who whispered in your ear that you should take the kingdom from me were trying to do anything but destroy you?’ He pounced on him and, taking hold of him, threw him to the ground, like a sparrow in the talons of a hawk. We have already mentioned his courage, skill and power, but the prince called: ‘Servants of these Names, hold him.’ The mamluk was advancing on him but was dismayed to find himself unable to move. He called to his own mamluks who jumped up, but then recognized the son of their former master. ‘Damn you, take him!’ shouted Qaraqush, but the prince told the servants of the Names to hold them, and they too were unable to stir. Qaraqush shouted at them again, but they told him that they were in the same state as he was.

The prince then told him: ‘Don’t hope to take the kingdom for yourself, for I have a Name that would allow me to destroy these mountains if I wanted.’ ‘What had I to do with this?’ asked Qaraqush. ‘It was the vizier’s fault.’ He then looked round and saw the vizier coming down from the roof and being put in front of him. ‘What brought me here?’ the vizier asked, and Qaraqush said: ‘Look in front of you.’ He saw the prince, surrounded by
jinn
, who asked him: ‘What harm did my father do you that made you repay him like this?’ ‘He took the dearest thing I owned and gave it to this man, and so I took the dearest thing he owned and gave it to him too. After I had had my revenge I did not care whether things went well or badly.’

At that the prince told the
jinn
to imprison them, which they did, and he then ordered a proclamation to be made that the sultan had returned. His subjects were delighted and he proceeded to summon the senior officials who, on their arrival, asked for and were granted forgiveness. He then had the queen brought to him within an hour, and he astonished her by telling her his story from beginning to end. He went on to ask permission to marry her, which she granted. A marriage contract was drawn up and he proceeded to consummate the marriage, finding her to be a virgin untouched by man.

She occupied a major place in his affection, but when she asked him for the pearl he refused, saying that he had to keep it in case of an attack by a formidable foe. He ordered the vizier and Qaraqush to be nailed on crosses and tormented by hunger and thirst until they died. He and his wife remained enjoying the happiest and most pleasant of lives until death parted them.

Here our story ends. Praise be to God alone, and His blessings and peace be on Muhammad, his family and his companions.