Thousand & One Nights: Sixteenth Night: The King & The Sage

What the vizier said to the King Yunan:

The Prince said to the She-Ghoul that he had been unfairly treated. She-Ghoul replied that he should pray to God. When the prince raising his eyes to Heaven prayed, "O Lord, help me to prevail upon my enemy. Everything is within your power." On hearing this invocation she gave up and departed, and he safely returned to his father and told him about the vizier and how he urged him to pursue the beast and drove him to encounter with the She-Ghoul. The king summoned the vizier and put him to death.

"You too, your Majesty, if you trust and befriend, and bestow favours on this sage, he will plot to destroy you and cause your death. Your Majesty should realise that I know for certain that he is a foreign agent who has  come to destroy you. Haven't you seen that he cured you externally, simply with something you held in your hand?"
King Yunan, who was beginning to feel angry, replied, "You are right, vizier. The sage may well be what you say and may have come to destroy me. He who has cured me with something to hold can kill me with something to smell."
"My vizier and good counselor," said the king, "how should I deal with him?"

The vizier replied, "Send for him now and have him brought before you, and when he arrives, strike off his head. In this way, you will attain your aim and fulfil your wish."
The king said, "This is good and sound advice."

Then, he sent for sage Duban, who came immediately, still feeling happy at the favours including dinars and robes that the king had bestowed on him.
When entered, he pointed his hand towards the King and began to recite the following verses:

If I have been remiss in thanking 
You, for whom then I have made 
My very verse and prose? You
Granted me gifts, I never asked.
Without deferment and excuse 
How can I fail to praise your 
Noble deeds and your gifts
Though they bend my back.

The king asked, "Sage, Do you know why I have had you brought before me?"
The sage: "No, your Majesty."
The King: "I brought you here to have you killed and to destroy the breath of life within you."
Duban: (In astonishment) "Why does your Majesty wish to have me put to death, for what crime?"
King: I have been told that you are a spy and that you have come to kill me. I will have you killed before you kill me. I will have you lunch before you have me dinner."
Then the king called the executioner, and ordered him, "Strike off the head of this sage and rid me off him."
The sage understood that someone had envied him, plotted against him, lied to the king, in order to have him killed and get rid of him. He realised that the king had little wisdom, sense of justice, or good sense. He was filled with regret, when it was useless to regret. He said to himself, "there is no power and no strength save the God the Almighty. I did a good deed but was rewarded with an evil one."

In the meantime the King was shouting at the executioner, "Strike off his head."
The sage implored, "Spare me your Majesty, and God will spare you; Destroy me, the God will destroy you." 
King Yunan: (to the sage)"Sage, you must die, for you have cured me with a mere handle, and I fear that you can kill me with anything."
The sage: This is my reward from your Majesty. You reward good with evil."
The king: "Don't stall. You must die today without delay."
When the sage was convinced that he was going to die, he was filled with grief and sorrow, and his eyes overflowed with tears. He blamed himself for doing a favour to one who does not deserve it. It was like sowing seeds on a barren land and he recited the following verses:

Maimuna was a foolish girl
Though descended from a sage
And many with pretense to kill
Are many on dry land upended.

The executioner approached the sage, bandaged his eyes, bound his hands, and raised the sword, while the sage cried, expressed regret and implored, " For the sake of God, your Majesty, Spare me, God will spare you; destroy me God will destroy you." Then he tearfully recited the following verses:

They who deceive enjoy success, 
While my true counsel fails, and 
Rewarded with disgrace. If I live
I will nothing unveil; If I die; then
Curse all the men, all the men
The men who counsel and prevail.

The sage: 'Is this my reward from your Majesty? It is like the reward of crocodile!"
The king: "What is the story of the crocodile?"
The Sage: "I am in no condition to tell you a story. For God's sake, spare me, and God will spare you. Destroy me, God will destroy you."

Several noble men approached the king and said, "We beg your Majesty to forgive him for our sake, for in our view, he has done nothing to deserve this." The king replied, "You do not know the reason why I wish to have him killed. I tell you that if I spare him, I will surely perish, for I fear that he who has cured me externally from my affliction, which had defied the Greek sages, simply by having me hold a handle, can kill me with anything I touch. I must kill him in order to protect myself from him."

Sage Duban implored again, "For God's sake, your Majesty, spare me, and God will spare you. Destroy me, God will destroy you."
The king: "I must kill you."

The sage realised that his death is imminent.
The Sage: "I beg your Majesty to postpone my execution until I return home. Leave instructions for my burial, discharge my obligations, distribute alms, and donate my scientific and medical books to one who deserves them. I have a particular book entitled The Secret of Secrets, which I should like to give you for safekeeping in your library."

The King: "What is the secret of this book?"
The sage: "It contains countless secrets, but the chief one is that if the Majesty has my head struck off, open the book on the sixth leaf, read three lines from the left page, and speaks to me, my head will speak and answer whatever you ask."

The king was greatly amazed.
The King: "Is it possible that if I cut off your head and, as you say, open the book, read the third line, and speak to your head, it will speak to me? This is the wonder of wonders."

He allowed the sage to go home, and arranged guards to accompany him.

The sage settled his affairs on the following day, returned to the royal palace, and found assembled there princes, viziers, chamberlains, lords of the realm, and military officers as well as king's retinue, servants and many of his citizens. Sage Duban entered, carrying an old book and a kohl jar containing a powder. He sat down, ordered a platter, poured out the powder, and smoothed it on the platter. Then he said to the king, "Take this book, your Majesty, and don't open it until after my execution. When my head is cut off, let it be placed on the platter, and order that it be pressed on the powder. Then open the book and begin to ask my head a question, it will then answer you. There is no power and no strength save God, the Almighty. For God's sake spare me, and God will spare you; destroy me God will destroy you." 

The king: "I must kill you, especially to see how your head will speak to me."

The king took the book, ordered the executioner to strike off the sage's head. The executioner drew his sword, and with one stroke, dropped the head in the middle of the platter, and when he pressed the head on the powder, the bleeding stopped. Then the sage opened his eyes, and said, "Now your Majesty, open the book." When the king opened the book, he found the pages stuck. So he put his finger in his mouth, wetted it with his saliva, and opened the first page, and he kept opening the pages with difficulty until he opened turned seven leaves. But when he looked in the book he found nothing written inside, and he exclaimed, "Sage, I find nothing written in this book."

The Sage: "Open more pages." 
The king opened some more pages, but still found nothing, and while he was doing this, the drug spread through his body - for the book had been poisoned - and he began to heave, sway and twitch.

Now it was break of dawn.

End of the Night 













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