Arabian Nights by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781402772368
Publisher: Sterling Children's Books

THE TWENTIETH NIGHT

The following night, when Scheherazade was in bed, her sister Dinarzad said, “Please, sister, tell us more of this lovely tale.” The king added, “Make it the end of the second dervish’s story.” Scheherazade replied, “Very well!”

It is told, O happy king, that the second dervish said to the woman:

The messengers took the scroll and returned with it to the king. My writing pleased him, and he said, “Take this robe of honor to the person who wrote these lines.”

The men smiled and said, “O King of the age and the world, the writer of these lines is an ape.” The king asked, “Is it true?” They told him it was, and the king was greatly amazed. Then he said, “I wish to see this ape.” He sent his messengers to me, and they dressed me with the robe of honor and took me to him.

When I saw the king, I bowed down three times before him. Then I kissed the ground once, and he noted my fine manners. “This is a wonder,” said the king, and he ordered a table of food set before him. He asked me to eat with him. I ate only a little before writing out some more lines for him.

The king read what I wrote and said, “If a man had this skill, he would pass all other men.”

Just then, the king’s daughter appeared. She wore a veil on her face. “O Father,” she said, “do you think so little of me that you would expose me to this man?” The king was astonished and said, “Daughter, there is no one here but this ape. Why do you veil your face?” She replied, “An ape? Why, this is a wise and kind man, put under a spell by a demon.”

Then the king turned to his daughter and said, “How do you know this?” She replied, “O Father, I have copied and learned a hundred books of spells. I could move the stones of your city into the ocean and even beyond the ends of the earth. I could make the sky darken, turning day into night, for a hundred days.”

The king said, “O daughter, free this ape from his spell, so that I may make him my vizier and allow him to marry you.” She replied, “As you wish.”

The king’s daughter began to whisper a spell and then ordered a bowl of water. She sprinkled me with the water and said, “I command you to be yourself again.”

Suddenly I stood before her as a man. But there was little time for joy. In a flash the demon appeared in the sky, taking the form of a terrible lion. We were terrified. The world turned dark all around us.

The demon cursed the princess for what she had done. She answered him by turning into a great serpent and flying into the air. There was an incredible battle that shook the castle under our feet. The fight lasted for some time, with the girl and the demon taking the shapes of different animals.

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