One Thousand and One Nights

Like “The Tale of the Hunchback,” this story includes three interconnected stories: “The Tale of King Yunan and Duban the Doctor,” “The Tale of King Sindbad and the Falcon,” and “The Tale of the Enchanted King.”

The story begins with a poor fisherman who casts his net and pulls up “a bottle made of yellow copper,” which “bore the seal of our master Solomon son of David” (80). By breaking the seal, he releases a terrifying jinnee who threatens to kill him. The fisherman resolves to trick the jinnee back into his bottle. When he is successful, he threatens to throw him back out into the sea, but the jinnee convinces him to tell him the tale of Yunan and the Doctor instead.

The fisher begins to relate the tale of King Yunan of Persia who was afflicted with leprosy, which “baffled his physicians and defied all cures” (85). A wise doctor named Duban cures the king, who then rewards him richly. He becomes a companion of the king and rouses the jealousy of the king’s Vizier, “a man of repellent aspect, an envious, black-souled villain, full of spite and cunning” (86). When the Vizier attempts to turn the king against Duban, the king refuses, asking: “Would you have me kill my benefactor and repent of my rashness, as King Sindbad repented after he had killed his falcon?” (87).

King Yunan then tells the tale of Persian King Sindbad who loved hunting with his prize falcon. When the falcon tries to prevent him from drinking poison, he misunderstands, becomes irritated, and cuts off its wings. After the bird dies, he regrets killing “the bird which had saved his life” (89).

Despite this story, the Vizier manages to turn King Yunan against Duban by playing on his fears. When the king sends for Duban and arranges his execution, Duban wonders how he can repay good with evil. Before he is killed, Duban tricks the king into accepting a poison-laced book, and the king perishes as well. 

After finishing this story, the fisherman tells the jinnee that had he repaid his rescue instead of trying to kill him, he would have been spared, but he did not and therefore must perish. The jinnee pleads with him and convinces the fisherman to let him out with a promise: “[I will] render you a service that will enrich you!” (92). He takes the fisherman to a lake with white, red, blue, and yellow fish, which he tells him to sell to his King. He does so and receives a reward.

When the king, his cook, and the vizier witness apparitions while cooking the fish, they send for the fisherman, who leads the king to the lake in which he fished. In searching for the history of the lake and the strange fish, the king comes upon a palace and meets a young man whose lower body is made of stone. The youth recounts “The Tale of the Enchanted King” to him.

The youth, a prince, was once married to his cousin. After five years of marriage, he found out that she was committing adultery with her African master, that she hated him, and that she practiced magic. When the prince kills her lover and she finds out, she turns him into half-stone and bewitches his kingdom, “transforming all [his] subjects—Moslems, Jews, Christians, and heathens—into fishes of four different colors” (101).

Dismayed by this story and the fact that the enchantress continues to visit and beat the youth daily, the king tricks and kills both the enchantress and her African master. He restores the youth’s kingdom and takes him as his son. They both reward the fisherman with robes of honor, riches, and marriages to his children, and they all “lived happily ever afterwards” (105).

This story is about a young woman with an absent husband who takes a lover. After her lover is thrown into prison for fighting, she hatches a plan to have him released by seducing and tricking the city’s governor, judge, vizier, king, and carpenter. She has a large cupboard made with five compartments for the five men and convinces all five to climb in. After she obtains a written order for the release of her lover, she locks the men in the cupboard, has her lover freed, and flees with him to “go live in a distant land” (110). The five men remain in the cupboard for days, when the neighbors mistake them for spirits and almost burn them. When released, “the luckless lovers burst out laughing” (112) and go their separate ways.

This story includes seven tales about seven of Sindbad’s voyages as told by the sailor himself to another Sindbad, a porter. The two meet in the city of Baghdad during the reign of Abbasid Caliph Haroun al-Rashid. The poor porter takes a break from work to marvel at a beautiful house when its owner, Sindbad the sailor, invites him in. Sindbad invites the porter to stay and eat with his party and “marvel at [his] strange story” (114).

Sindbad begins the tale of his first voyage by noting that he had inherited money upon the death of his merchant father and spent it all living luxuriously. After spending his entire fortune, he resolves to “travel abroad and trade in foreign lands” (115). After setting out to sea from the city of Basra, his ship anchors at a small island. The sailors soon realize that the island is actually “a gigantic whale floating on the bosom of the sea” (116). While some are able to return to the ship and sail away, Sindbad is left to float and hold on to a wooden trough. Upon exploring the island and coming across a mare and a man guarding it, he learns that the island is the breeding ground for special mares for King Mahrajan. Sindbad goes to visit the king, tells him his story, and joins the king’s court. Although he enjoys learning new things and having new experiences, he longs for his “native land” (119) and soon comes across his old ship and shipmates. He returns with them to Baghdad and “forgetting the hardships of [his] voyage, resume[s] with new zest [his] former mode of living” (121). After finishing this story, Sindbad gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his second voyage.

Sindbad’s second voyage begins when feels “an irresistible longing to travel again about the world” (122). He buys merchandise and sets out to sea. When he and the crew stop to rest on an island, Sindbad falls asleep, and the men leave him behind. He is terrified and begins to roam the island aimlessly. He comes upon the massive egg of a roc bird and sees the bird circle the island. Sindbad realizes that this could be his method of escape and fashions a rope from his turban. He ties himself to the bird, which carries him away to an inhospitable valley. Sindbad realizes that this valley is teeming with rare diamonds but that deadly snakes also infest the land. He hides in a cave and thinks about his escape, remembering that he had heard from travelers that men would disguise themselves as sheep to entice the roc to carry them off. He does this, scooping up as many diamonds as he can find, and gets the roc to carry him off to another mountain. There, Sindbad meets fellow merchants, sells his diamonds, and returns to Baghdad. Again, he settles back into a luxurious lifestyle and “forgot the perils and hardship of [his] travels” (128). After finishing this story, Sindbad gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales yet again. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his third voyage.

Sindbad once again “longed to roam the world in quest of profit and adventure” (129) and so sets out on his third voyage. He sets out to sea with his merchandise, but his ship soon becomes lost and drifts to the Isle of the Zughb, home to “a race of dwarfs more akin to apes than men” (129). Sindbad and the crew are immediately taken prisoner by the dwarves, who run off with their ship. Stranded, the sailors come upon a massive home with a pile of bones in the courtyard. They soon discover that it belongs to a “colossal black giant” (131) who eats people and begins to eat the crew. Those who survive agree that they must kill the giant. They make a raft, blind him, and then attempt to make their escape. They barely make it, only to land in the clutches of a sea serpent who eats them one by one. Only Sindbad is able to escape, and a passing ship rescues him. Miraculously, the ship ends up being the ship from his previous voyage, so he reunites with the crew and his merchandise. Sindbad travels with them, seeing numerous marvelous things and selling his merchandise, and then returns to Baghdad wealthy yet again. After finishing this story, Sindbad gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales yet again. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his fourth voyage.

Sindbad reveals that he once again began to feel a “thirst for seeing the world, despite the perils [he] had encountered” (136). He purchases more merchandise and sets out to sea again. His ship is caught in a storm, and Sinbad shipwrecks on an island with some of the crew. They are taken by “naked and wild-looking men” (137) to see the island’s king and soon discover that the inhabitants are cannibals. Sindbad saves himself by refusing to eat and running away. After his escape to the opposite side of the island, he meets another group of people who take him to their king. Sindbad notes that the people of the kingdom ride bare-back, so he makes a saddle for the king. This wins him esteem and makes him “the richest man in the island” (139). Sindbad settles down and marries a woman of the court but soon learns that the inhabitants of this side of the island observe an odd custom: Once one’s spouse dies, the living spouse is trapped in the Cavern of the Dead to follow them to the grave. Sindbad narrowly escapes this fate following his own wife’s death by killing newcomers to the cave and eating their food. He admits that, later, “[M]y sojourn with the dead would come back to me and I would be beside myself with terror” (144). After he escapes the cave, he manages to return to Baghdad safely with treasure from the cave. After finishing this story, Sindbad again gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his fifth voyage.

Despite his harrowing last trip, Sinbad admits that he “longed to sail new seas and explore new lands” (145). He sets out with merchandise yet again, this time having purchased and staffed his own ship. When the ship passes an island with another roc egg, the passengers “throw great stones at the egg” (145), break the shell, and eat the young bird. The mother roc attacks the ship, and Sinbad again find himself shipwrecked. Upon searching the island he lands on, he finds “a decrepit old man” (146). Sinbad, wanting to help him, allows the old man to climb on his shoulders so that he may carry him. However, the old man refuses to dismount and forces Sindbad to carry him around and do his bidding. Sindbad is finally able to dislodge and kill him by getting him drunk. He discovers later that this was the Old Man of the Sea and that he is “the first to escape alive from his clutches” (150). Several merchants help Sindbad earn money and return to Baghdad. After finishing this story, Sindbad again gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his sixth voyage.

In Baghdad, Sindbad recalls “the joy of returning from a far journey” (152) and sets off to sea once again with his merchandise. The ship that he is on becomes lost at sea and eventually shipwrecks. Sindbad and a few survivors land on an island with rivers and banks full of jewels. As the other survivors die one by one, Sindbad chastises himself for leaving Baghdad. Once he is the only one left alive, he decides to follow the river through a cavern on a raft. Eventually, “many Indians and Abyssinians” (154) find him, and he visits their king. After Sindbad tells him all about “[his] country and its far-famed Caliph […] Haroun Al-Rashid” (155), the king is impressed and resolves to send the caliph a present. He outfits Sindbad with a new ship and a present. Sindbad returns to Baghdad and tells the caliph about his adventures. After finishing this story, Sindbad again gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold and invites him to return and hear the rest of his tales. The next morning, the porter returns, and Sindbad begins the story of his last voyage.

Sindbad notes that although he was well-past his prime, “[his] untamed spirit rebelled against [his] declining years” (156), and he resolves to set out yet again. One day, while sailing “in the China Sea” (156), his ship is caught in a storm and attacked by a massive whale. Sindbad shipwrecks on an island yet again. After exploring the island, he notices a river which flows into the interior, builds a raft, and lets the current carry him. He is found and taken in by “a venerable old man” (158) who sees him as a son and offers his daughter in marriage. Sindbad marries his daughter and inherits all the old man’s belongings upon his death. However, he soon discovers that the island’s inhabitants are “the brothers of Satan” (161) who sprout wings and fly. His wife assures him that her father was “of an alien race” and “shared none of their creeds” (161), and the two resolve to leave for Baghdad. Sindbad finishes this tale by noting that it was “the last and longest of [his] voyages” (161). After finishing this last story, Sindbad again gifts the porter 100 pieces of gold. The porter becomes a regular visitor to the house, and the two live in “amity and peace” (162) until their deaths.