The Story of the Fisherman with the Efreet

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The fisherman is very shrewd! He succeeded with his words to return the efreet to the copper vessel.

Then the efreet pleaded with the fisherman, but the fisherman did not believe him and started to tell a story.

ON THE SECOND NIGHT

Sheherazade said:

The efreet said: So I flew into terrible anger, and I said in my soul: "Now I will kill whoever delivers me, but I will grant him the choice of his death!" It was then that you, O fisherman, came to deliver me. And I granted you to choose your kind of death!

At these words of the efreet, the fisherman said: “O Allah! what a marvelous thing! It had to be just me who delivered him! O efreet, be gracious to me and Allah will reward you! But if you kill me, Allah will raise someone for you to kill you." Then the efreet said to him: “But if I want to kill you, it is precisely because you delivered me!" And the fisherman said, “O Sheikh of the efreets, is this how you return evil for good! Also, the proverb does not lie! And the fisherman recited verses on this subject:

Do you want to taste the bitterness of things? — Be kind and helpful.
Yes, I swear it on my life! Scoundrels ignore all gratitude.
If you want it, try it! And your fate will be that of poor Magir, mother of Amer!

But the efreet said to him, “Enough of abusing words! Know that I absolutely need your death!" Then the fisherman said to himself: “I am only a man, and he is a genie, but Allah has given me a well-founded reason; so I will arrange a combination to lose it, a ploy of my shrewdness. And I'll see if he, in turn, can combine something with his malice and his cunning." So he said to the efreet: “Have you really decided my death?" The efreet replied, “Do not doubt it." Then he said: "By the name of the Highest, which is engraved on the seal of Suleiman, I conjure you to answer my question truthfully!" When the efreet heard the name of the Highest, he was very moved and very struck, and answered: "You can question me and I will answer you with the truth." Then the fisherman said, "How could you be completely contained in this vessel which can barely contain your foot or your hand?" The efreet said, "Are you doubting that, by any chance?" The fisherman replied, "Indeed, I will never believe it unless I see you with my own eyes entering the vessel!"

The efreet stirred, shook, and became a smoke again which rose to the firmament, condensed, and began to enter the vase, little by little, until the end. Then the fisherman quickly took the lead lid imprinted with Suleiman's seal and blocked the orifice of the vase with it. Then he hailed the efreet and said, “Hey! estimate and weigh the kind of death you prefer to die, or I will throw you into the sea, and I will build myself a house on the shore, and I will prevent anyone from fishing, saying, Here is an efreet; delivered, he will want to kill his liberator and will enumerate the varieties of death to him to leave him the choice!" When the efreet heard the fisherman's words, he tried to get out, but he could not; and he saw that he was imprisoned, with Suleiman's seal above him. He then understood that the fisherman had locked him in the dungeon against which neither the weakest nor the most powerful among the efreets can prevail! And, realizing that the fisherman was carrying it from the side of the sea, he said: “No! No!" And the fisherman said: “You must! Oh! it's necessary!" Then the efreet began to soften his terms; he submitted and said, “O fisherman, what are you going to do with me?" He said, "Throw you into the sea! For if you have dwelt there for one thousand eight hundred years, I will keep you there until the hour of judgment! For did I not ask you to preserve me so that Allah preserves you? and not kill me so that Allah does not kill you? But you refused my prayer, and you acted wickedly! So Allah has delivered you into my hands. And I have no remorse for betraying you!" Then the efreet said, "Open the vase to me, and I will shower you with blessings!" He answered: “You are lying, oh cursed one! Besides, what is happening between you and me is exactly what happened between the vizier of King Iounane and the doctor Rouiane! »

And the efreet said: “But who were the vizier of King Iounane and the doctor Rouiane? And what is this story? »

STORY OF THE VIZIR OF KING IOUNANE AND THE DOCTOR ROUIANE

The fisherman says:

“Know, O you efreet, that there was, in the antiquity of time and the past of the age and of the moment, in the city of Fars, in the country of the Roumanns, a king named Iounane. He was rich and powerful, a master of armies, great forces, and allies of all kinds of men. But his body was afflicted with leprosy for which the doctors and the scholars had despaired. Neither drugs, pills, nor ointments worked on him, and none of the doctors could find an effective cure for him. Now, one day, a famous old doctor, called Rouiane, came to the city of King Iounane. He was versed in Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabic, and Syrian books; he had studied medicine and astronomy, of which he knew very well the principles and the rules, and the good and bad effects; possessed the virtues of both dry and fat plants and herbs, and their good and bad effects; he had finally studied philosophy and all the medical sciences and other sciences as well. Also, when the doctor entered the city and stayed there for a few days, he learned the story of the king and leprosy that afflicted his body by the will of Allah, and also the absolute failure of the treatments of all the doctors and scientists. At this news, the doctor spent the night very preoccupied. But when he awoke in the morning - and the light of day shone and the sun greeted the world, this magnificent setting of the Very Good - he dressed up in his finest clothes, and entered the palace of King Iounane.

— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.

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First Night

Third Night