Thousand & One Nights: 69th Night:

The Caliph heard these stories. He wanted to know the stories of the two bitches. He said, "Tell me what happened to the demon serpent who cast a spell on your sisters and turned them into bitches. Do you know her whereabouts, and did she set with you the date of her return to you?"

The girl replied, "O the Commander of the Faithful, she gave me a tuft of hair, saying, 'Whenever you need me, burn two of the hairs, and I will be with you at once, even if I am beyond of Mount Qaf."' Caliph asked, "Where is the tuft of hair?"
She brought it, and he took it and burned the entire tuft. Suddenly, the whole palace began to tremble, and the serpent arrived and said, "Peace be with you. O Commander of the Faithful! This woman has sown with me the seed of gratitude, and I cannot reward her amply enough. She killed my enemy and saved me from death. Knowing what her sisters had done to her, I felt bound to reward her by avenging her. At first, I decided to finish them. But on a second thought I changed it because it may harm her seriously. So I cast a spell on them and turned them into bitches. Now, if you wish me to release them, I will look into the case of this flogged girl, and may the God help me and make it easy for me to solve her case and discover who wronged her and usurped her rights." Then she took a bowel of water, and after incantation sprinkled the two sisters with the water and turned them into their original form.

Then she said, "O Commander of the Faithful, the man who beat this girl is your son al-Amin, brother of al-Ma'mun. He had heard of her beauty and charm, tricked her into a legal marriage. There she lived like a prisoner. He was about to kill her, but reflecting on the sin, he flogged her and send her back to her home."

Later, the Caliph verified the story and found it was true, caused the first girl, and her two sisters (bitches) to be married by three dervishes who were, in fact, sons of three kings. Then he made the dervishes his own chamberlains. He married the flogged girl to his son al-Amin under a new marriage contract and showered her with wealth and ordered the house to be rebuilt. The Commander of the Faithful himself married the third girl, shopper.

A few days later.
Caliph said to Ja'far, "I wish to go into the city to find out what is happening and to find out what people feel about my administrators."
Ja'far replied, "As you wish."

It was night. Caliph went to the city together with Ja'far and Masrur. They walked about the streets and markets. They made their way through an alley. They saw a very old man carrying a basket and a fishnet on his head and holding a staff in his hand. 

Caliph said to Ja'far, "He is a poor man in need." Then he asked the old man, "Old man, what is your trade?"
"My lord, I am a fisherman. I have been out fishing since the midday. No luck, I didn't get anything. My family, I don't know what shall I do. I wish I were dead."

Caliph said him, "Fisherman, would you go back with us to Tigris, stand at the river bank, and cast the net for me, and whatever you happen to catch, I shall buy from you for hundred dinars?"

Delighted, the old fisherman said, "Yes my lord," and went back with them to Tigris. He cast his net, and when he gathered his rope, and pulled it up, he found inside the net, a locked heavy chest. The Caliph gave the fisherman one hundred dinars, and bade Masrur carry the chest to the palace.

They broke it open in the palace. There was a basket of palm leaves sewn with a red woolen thread. Cutting the basket open, they saw inside a piece of carpet, and lifting it out, saw a woman's cloak folded in four. When they removed the cloak, they found at the bottom of the chest, a girl in the bloom of youth, as fair as pure silver. She had been slain and cut to pieces.

It was dawn, the time to break.


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