Dunyazad said:
"My sister, I beg you to finish your story."
And Scheherazade replied:
"With all the generosity and sympathy of my heart."
Then, she continued with the tale.
Continuation of the story of the second night
I have come to know, oh lucky king!
When the third sheikh told the efrit the most amazing of the three tales, the efrit was greatly amazed, moved and pleased. He said:
"I grant the rest of the blood for the crime to be redeemed and I set the merchant free."
Then, the merchant, overjoyed, went out to meet the sheikhs and thanked them many times. They, corresponding to his attentions, congratulated him by the pardon. And each one returned to his kingdom.
However, Scheherazade added:
"The story of the fisherman is more amazing."
And the king said to Scheherazade:
"What is that story of the fisherman?"
And Scheherazade told this tale.
Story of the fisherman and the efrit
I have come to know, oh lucky king!
There was a fisherman, an elderly man, married with three children and very poor. He used to cast the nets only four times a day and nothing else. One day, between days, at twelve in the morning, he went to the seashore, left the basket on the ground, cast the net, and waited until it reached the bottom. Then, he put the ropes together and noticed that the net was too heavy and he couldn´t handle it. He brought the cape ashore and tied it to a post. Then, he undressed and went into the sea, maneuvering around the net and didn´t stop until he had pulled it out. Next, he dressed very happily, but when approaching the net, he found a donkey dead. Seeing this, he exclaimed disconsolately:
"All power and might are in Allah, the Most High and the Almighty!"
Then, he expressed:
"Verily, this gift from Allah is amazing!"
And he recited the following verses:
"O diver, who blindly spins in the darkness of night and perdition!"
"Abandon those painful works, fortune doesn´t like movement!"
He pulled out the net, squeezing the water out of it, and when he had finished, spread it out again. Then, going into the water, he exclaimed:
"In the name of Allah!"
And he cast the net again, waiting for it to hit the bottom. He wanted to take it out, but, noticed that it weighed more than before, and that it was more attached, for which he believed it was full of a good catch, and throwing himself into the water again, he finally pulled the net out with great effort, carrying it to the shore and finding an enormous jar, full of sand and mud.
Seeing this object, he lamented greatly and recited these verses:
"Cease vicissitudes of fate and have mercy on men!"
"How sad!"
"On earth, no reward is equal to merit or worthy of the effort made to achieve it!"
"I leave home sometimes to candidly seek fortune, and I learn that fortune is long dead!"
"Is it so?"
"Oh fortune!"
"How do you leave the wise in the shadows, so that the fools rule the world?"
Next, throwing the jar away from him, he begged Allah's pardon for his moment of rebellion and cast the net for the third time, drawing it out to find it full of broken pots and pans.
Seeing this, he still recited some verses of the Poet:
"Oh Poet!"
"The wind of fortune will never blow your way!"
"Are you ignorant, naive man, that neither your reed pen nor the harmonious lines of writing will ever enrich you?"
And raising the forehead to the sky, he exclaimed:
"Allah!"
"You know that I don´t cast the net more than four times a day, and that´s already three!"
Then, he called again the name of Allah again and cast the net, waiting for it to hit the bottom. This time, despite all his efforts, he couldn´t get it out either, because with each pull, it snagged more on the rocks at the bottom.
He said:
"There is no strength or power except in Allah!"
He undressed, wading into the water and maneuvering around the net, until he dislodged it and brought it ashore. Opening it, he found an enormous gilt copper vase, full and untouched. The mouth was closed with a lead bearing the seal of the Lord Sulaiman, son of Dawood.
The fisherman was very happy to see it and expressed:
"Here is an object that I will sell in the tinker's souk, because it is well worth ten gold dinars."
Although, he tried to move the vase, it was very heavy.
He reflected:
"I have to open it without remedy…"
"I will put in the sack what it contains and then I will sell it in the souk of the coppersmiths."
He took out the knife and began to maneuver, until he raised the lead. Then he shook the vase, wanting to tilt it, in order to spill the contents onto the floor. But, nothing came out of the glass, apart from a smoke that rose to the blue of the sky and spread over the surface of the earth.
However, the fisherman didn´t return from his astonishment. After all the smoke had gone out, it began to condense into whirlwinds, and at last appeared an efrit, whose forehead reached the clouds, while his feet sank into the dust. The head of the efrit was like a dome, his hands were like rakes, his legs were masts, its mouth was a cavern, his teeth were stones, his nose was an alcarraza, his eyes were two torches, and his hair appeared disheveled and powdered.
Seeing this efrit, the fisherman was dumbfounded, his flesh was trembling, his teeth were set, his mouth was dry and his eyes were blinded by the light.
When he saw the fisherman, the efrit said:
"There is no God but Allah, and Sulaiman is the prophet of Allah!"
And turning to the fisherman, he continued in this way:
"Oh you, great Sulaiman, prophet of Allah, don´t kill me!"
"I will always obey you and will never rebel against your commands."
Then, the fisherman exclaimed:
"Oh, bold and rebellious giant!"
"You dare to say that Sulaiman is the prophet of Allah!"
"Sulaiman died eighteen hundred years ago…"
"And we are at the end of time."
"But, what story are you here to tell me?"
"What is the reason you were in this vase?"
Then the efrit said:
"There is no God but Allah!"
"But, allow…"
"Oh fisherman!"
"That I announce good news to you."
The fisherman replied:
"What news is that?"
And the efrit answered:
"Your death!"
"You are going to die right now and in the most terrible way."
The fisherman stated:
"Oh, chief of the efrits!"
"For that news, you deserve that the heaven withdraws its help from you!"
"May He take you away from me!"
"But, why do you want me dead?"
"What did I do to deserve it?"
"I have taken you out of that vessel, have saved you from a long stay in the sea and I have brought you to the land."
Then, the efrit said:
"Think and choose the kind of death you prefer."
"You will die the way you like."
And the fisherman expressed:
"What is my crime to deserve such a punishment?"
The efrit answered:
"Listen to my story, fisherman."
The fisherman demanded:
"Speak and abbreviate your story, because of impatience, my soul is coming out of my foot."
And the efrit said:
"He knows that I am a rebellious efrit."
"I rebelled against Sulaiman, son of Dawood."
"My name is Sakhr El Genni."
"Sulaiman sent towards me his vizier Assef, son of Barkhia, who caught me despite my resistance, and brought me into the hands of Sulaiman."
"At that moment, my noise became very humble. Seeing me, Sulaiman made an incantation for him to Allah and commanded me to embrace his religion and submit to his obedience. But, I refused."
"Then, he sent for that vase, imprisoned me in it, and sealed it with lead, printing the name of the Most High."
"He ordered the faithful efrits to carry me on their shoulders and throw me into the middle of the sea."
"I remained a hundred years at the bottom of the water, and I said with all my heart: 'I will eternally enrich the one who manages to free me.' "
"But, the hundred years passed and no one freed me…"
"During the other hundred years, I said to myself: 'I will discover and give the treasures of the earth to whoever sets me free.' "
"But, nobody saved me…"
"And four hundred years passed, and I said to myself: 'I will grant three things to the one who will free me.' "
"And no one saved me either..."
"Then, I was terribly angry and said with all my heart: 'Now, I will kill whoever frees me, but first, I will let him choose, granting him with the kind of death he prefers.' "
"Then, you…"
"Oh fisherman!"
"You came to free me and therefore I allow you to choose the kind of death."
The fisherman, hearing these words of the efrit, said:
"By Allah!"
"The opportunity is prodigious!"
"I had to be the one to set you free!"
"Pardon me, efrit, that Allah will reward you!"
"On the other hand, if you kill me, He will look for someone who will make you perish."
Then, the efrit told him:
"But, if I want to kill you, it is precisely because you have freed me!"
The fisherman replied:
"Oh sheikh of the efrits, this is how you return evil for good!"
"By the faith, the Proverb doesn´t lie!"
And he recited these verses:
"Do you want to taste the bitterness of things?"
"Be good and helpful!"
"The wicked know no gratitude!"
"Try it, if you like, and your fate will be that of poor Magir, mother of Amer!"
But, the efrit expressed:
"We have talked enough!"
"You know that without remedy I will kill you."
Then, the fisherman thought:
"I am only a man and he is an efrit, but Allah has given me a reason wide awake."
"I will resort to a ruse to defeat him."
"I will see how far his malice goes."
Next, he said to the efrit:
"Have you really decided my death?"
The efrit answered:
"Do not hesitate!"
The fisherman stated:
"By the name of the Most High, which is engraved on Sulaiman's seal, I adjure you to answer my question truthfully."
When the efrit heard the name of the Most High, he responded very moved:
"Ask, and I will answer the truth!"
Then, the fisherman said:
"How could you fit completely into this vase where your foot or your hand barely fit?"
The efrit replied:
"Do you doubt it?"
The fisherman answered:
"Indeed, I will never believe this, until I see with my own eyes that you get into it."
At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appearing, and discreetly fell silent.
To be continued during the fourth night…