Thousand & One Nights: 50th Night

The Baghdad house of three beautiful and independent young girls. The porter, three dervishes, Harun Al Rashid, his vizier and executioner were present. The narrative is by the second dervish. 

The scene of his narrative was the Chamber of another king. The king, his young daughter and the second dervish in the form of an ape were present.

The king's daughter took a knife engraved with names in Hebrew characters. Next she drew a perfect circle in the middle of palace hall. Inscribed on it named in Kufic letters as well as other talismanic words. Then she muttered charms and uttered spells; in a short time it was dark   until we could no longer see anything around, and thought that the sky was falling on our heads. Suddenly the demon appeared in the garb of a lion as big as a bull and we were terrified. The girl cried, "Get away, you dog!" The demon replied, 
"You traitor, you had betrayed me and broken the oath. Have we not taken an oath that neither would cross the other?

The girl said, "Cursed one, how could I keep a pledge with one like you?"

"Then take what you have brought on yourself," and with an open mouth he rushed towards the girl, who quickly plucked a hair from her head and as she waived the hair in the air and muttered over it, the hair turned into a keen sword blade with which she struck the lion, cutting him in half. But the two halves went flying, the head remained and turned into a scorpion. The girl quickly turned into a huge serpent, and the two fought a bitter battle for a long time. The scorpion turned into a vulture and flew outside the palace. The girl turned to an eagle and chased the vulture. They hovered in the sky for a long time, but suddenly the ground split apart and a black and white tomcat appeared. It meowed, snorted and snored. A black wolf followed him and the two battled in the palace for long time, and when the cat saw that he was losing, he screamed, turned into a worm and crept into a pomegranate that was lying beside the fountain. The pomegranate swelled until it was as big as a stripped watermelon. The wolf turned immediately to a snow white rooster. The pomegranate flew in the air and fell on the marble floor of the raised hall, breaking into pieces; and as the seeds scattered everywhere, the rooster fell to picking them. He picked them all, save one that lay hidden at the edge of the fountain. The rooster began to cry and crow, flap his wings, and motion with his beak, as if to ask us, "Are there any seeds left?"

But we did not understand, and he let out such a loud shriek, that we thought the palace was falling on our heads. Then he happened to turn and saw the seed at the edge of the fountain. He rushed to pick it ....

End of the Night



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