The morning arrived and Scheherazade broke off from what she had been allowed to say.
At the end of the day, the ninth night came. She continued speaking:
"I have heard this story."
"Oh auspicious king!"
Continuation of the story of the eighth night…
After the witch had taken water from the pool and spoken some unintelligible words, the fish danced, lifted their heads and immediately rose up. The magic spell was removed from the city, and it became inhabited again. In this regard, the merchants were buying and selling and each man practicing his trade, while the islands were restored to their original state.
The witch went to the tomb and said to the king:
"My darling, give me your noble hand and get up."
With a low voice, the king replied:
"Come to me."
She obeyed and the king with the sword in his hand, struck her in the breast, as she clung to him, so that he emerged, gleaming from her back. With another blow, he cut her in two, and threw the two parts on the ground.
Next, the king found the young man, whom she had enchanted previously, standing and waiting for him, congratulating the king for his escape, kissing his hand and thanking him.
The king asked the youth if he would prefer to stay in his own city or go with him.
The young man said:
"King of the age."
"Do you know how long a journey it is to your city?"
The king replied:
"Two and a half days."
The young man expressed:
"If you have been sleeping, wake up!"
"Between you and your city is a full year of hard travelling."
"You only arrived here in two and a half days because this place was under a special spell."
"But, I shall not separate from you for the blink of an eye."
The king was glad and said:
"Praise must be to Allah, who has given you to me. You shall be my son, for all my life, I have been granted no other."
They embraced with great joy and walked to the palace. The young man told his courtiers to make preparations for a journey and collect supplies and other things needed. This was done during ten days. After that, the king and the young man set off, being the first in a fever of anxiety to get back his own city. They traveled with fifty mamluks and magnificent gifts, and their journey continued day and night for an entire year, until as Allah had decreed their safety, they eventually reached their destiny.
A message was sent to the vizier that the king had arrived safe and sound, and he, together with his soldiers, who had despaired of him, came to greet the king, kissing the ground before him and congratulating him by his safe arrival.
Then, the king entered the city, took his seat on his throne, and the vizier, after presenting himself and hearing about all that had happened to the young man, added his own congratulations. Then, when the affairs were organized, the king presented gifts to many persons and he told the vizier to look for the man who had brought him the fish and was responsible for saving the people of the enchanted city.
A messenger was sent to the fisherman and when he was brought to the palace, the king presented him with robes of honor, asked him about his circumstances and if he had sons. The fisherman replied that he had two daughters and one son. The king sent for them and married with one of the girls, giving the other to the young man. The fisherman's son was appointed as treasurer, while the vizier was invested and promoted as ruler of the capital of the Black Islands, the young man's city. With him were sent the fifty mamluks, who had come with the king, and he was given robes of honor to take to the emirs of the city. He kissed the king's hands and started out immediately, while the king remained with the young man. Meanwhile, the fisherman had become the richest man of his age, while his daughters remained as wives of kings until they died.
Story of the doorman and the three maidens
Nonetheless, this is not more remarkable than what happened to the doorman.
There was an unmarried doorman, who lived in the city of Baghdad.
One day, while he was in the market, leaning on his basket, a young woman came up to him wrapped in a silken Mosuli shawl with a floating ribbon and wearing embroidered shoes, fringed with gold thread. When she raised her veil, beneath it could be seen dark eyes, which with their eyelashes and eyelids, shot soft glances, being perfect in their quality. She turned to the doorman and said in a sweet and clear voice:
"Take your basket and please follow me."
He was sure of what she had said, rushed to pick up the basket and thought:
"What a lucky day!"
"Oh good fortune!"
He followed the woman until she stopped by the door of a house. She knocked at it, and a Christian came down to whom she gave a dinar, receiving in exchange an olive-colored jar of strained wine. She put it in the basket and said to the doorman:
"Pick this up and follow me."
The doorman did what she told him and stated:
"By Allah!"
"This is a blessed and a fortunate day!"
Then, she stopped at the greengrocer's shop, where she bought: Uthmani quinces, Omani peaches, Sultani oranges, apples, jasmine and water lilies from Syria, autumn cucumbers, camomile blossoms, eglantine, lemons, pomegranate blooms, privet flowers, red anemones, scented myrtle and violets.
The woman put all these ingredients into the doorman's basket, telling him to pick it up. He did so and followed her until she stopped at the butcher's, where she got the man to cut for her ten ratls' weight of meat. He did this, and after paying him, she wrapped the meat in banana leaves and put this in the basket, giving instructions to the doorman. He picked up the basket and followed her to the grocer, from whom she bought: pistachio kernels, Tihama raisins and shelled almonds for making a dessert. The porter was told to pick them up and to continue following her. Next, she stopped at the sweetmeat seller's shop. At this time she bought a bowl and filled it with all that he had: doughnuts stuffed with musk, lemon and Maimuni tarts, soap and sugar cakes, sugar fingers, qadis' snacks' and Zainab's combs'. Every type of delicatessen was piled on to a plate and put into the basket. However, the doorman exclaimed:
"If you previously had told me, I would have brought a donkey to carry all this stuff."
The woman smiled and gave him a cuff on the back of the neck, saying:
"Hurry up!"
"Don't talk so much and you will get your reward, if Allah, the Almighty, wills it."
Then, she stopped at the perfume seller's where she bought ten types of scented water, including: Alexandrian candles, a bottle of muskscented rosewat, aloes, ambergris, aloes, frankincense, musk, orange-flower water, rosewater, two sugar loaves, and waters scented with lilies and willow flowers. She put all of these in the basket, telling again the doorman to pick it up and follow her.
He carried the basket and followed her to a handsome house, overlooking a spacious courtyard. It was a tall, pillared building, whose door had two ebony leaves, plated with red gold.
The girl halted by the door, raised the veil from her face and knocked lightly, while the doorman remained behind her, with his thoughts occupied by her beauty.
The door opened and as its leaves separated, the doorman looked at the person who had opened it. He saw a young woman of medium height, with jutting breasts, beautiful, comely, resplendent, with a perfect and well proportioned figure, a radiant brow, red cheeks and eyes rivaling those of a wild cow or a gazelle. Her eyebrows were like the crescent moon of the month of Sha'ban; she had cheeks like red anemones, a mouth like the seal of Solomon, coral red lips, teeth like camomile blossoms or pearls on a string, and a gazelle-like neck. Her bosom was like an ornate fountain, with breasts like twin pomegranates. Also she had an elegant belly and a navel that could contain an ounce of unguent. She was as the Poet described:
"Look at the sun and the moon of the palaces."
"At the jewel in her nose and at her flowery splendor."
"Your eye hasn´t seen white on black."
"United in beauty as in her face and in her hair."
"She is rosy-cheeked, the beauty proclaims her name."
"Even if you aren´t fortunate enough to know of her."
"She wobbled and I laughed in wonder at her haunches."
"But her waist prompted my tears."
As the doorman stared at her, he lost his wits and the basket almost fell from his head. He thought:
"Never in my life have I known a more blessed day than this!"
The girl who had answered the door said to other, who had brought the provisions:
"Come in and take the basket from this poor doorman."
So, the two women went in, followed by the doorman, and they went on until they reached a spacious, well-designed and beautiful courtyard, with additional carvings, vaulted chambers and alcoves, and furnished with sofas, wardrobes, cupboards and curtains. In the middle of it, there was a large pool filled with water, on which floated a skiff, and at its upper end was a couch of juniper wood, studded with gems over, which was suspended by a mosquito net of red satin, being these buttons of pearls as big as or bigger than hazelnuts.
From the inside, emerged a resplendent girl of pleasing beauty, glorious as the moon, with the character of a philosopher. Her eyes were bewitching, with eyebrows like bent bows. Her figure was slender and straight as the letter. Her breath had the scent of ambergris, her lips were carnelian red, sweet as sugar, and her face would shame the light of the radiant sun. In this regard, she was like one star of the heaven, a golden dome, an unveiled bride or a noble Bedouin lady, as described by the Poet:
"It is as though, she smiles to show stringed pearls."
"Hailstones or flowers of camomile."
"The locks of her hair are hanging black as the night."
"While her beauty is shaming the light of dawn."
This third woman rose from the couch and walked slowly to join her sisters, in the center of the hall, and said:
"What are you doing here?"
"Take the basket from the head of this poor doorman."
The provision buyer or housekeeper came first, followed by the doorkeeper, and the third girl helped them to lower the basket, after which they emptied out its contents and put everything in its place.
Then, they gave the doorman two dinars and told him to leave. For his part, he looked at the lovely women, the most beautiful he had ever seen, with their equally delightful natures. There were no men with them, and as he stared in astonishment at the wine, the fruits, the scented blossoms and all the rest, he was reluctant to leave. A woman asked:
"Why don't you leave?"
"Do you believe that we didn't pay you enough?"
And with that idea, she turned to her sister and said her:
"Give him another dinar."
The doorman said:
"By Allah!"
"Lady!"
"It wasn´t the case. I don´t think that the payment is too little, rather my fee would not come to two dinars, but you have taken over my heart and soul."
"How is it that you are alone with no men here and no pleasant companion?"
"You must know that there must be four to share a great feast and women can´t enjoy without men. As the Poet says: 'Don´t you see that four things join for entertainment? Harp, lute, zither and pipe. Matched by four scented flowers. Rose, myrtle, gillyflower and anemone. These only become pleasant with another four. Wine, gardens, a beloved and some gold. There are only three of you and so you need a fourth one, who must be a sensible and clever man, who can keep a secret.' "
The three girls were surprised by the words of the doorman, laughed at him and asked:
"Who can make us a man like that?"
"We are girls and are afraid of entrusting our secrets to someone who would not maintain them."
"We have read in an account what the Poet Ibn al-Thumam once said: 'Guard your secret as you can, entrusting it to no one. For if you do so, you will have let it go. If your own breast can´t contain your secret. How is it to be kept by someone else? And Abu Nuwas has said: -Whoever lets the people know his secret deserves a brand imprinted on his forehead.- ' "
When the doorman heard what they said, he exclaimed:
"I am an intelligent and a trustworthy man. I have read books and studied history. I make public what is good and conceal what is bad. As the Poet says: 'Only the trustworthy can maintain a secret. And it is with the good that secrets are concealed. With me they are kept locked inside a room. Whose keys are lost and whose door has been sealed.' "
When the girls heard this quotation, they said:
"You know that we spent too much money on this place."
"Do you have anything with you, which you can use to pay us back?"
"Therefore, we shall not let you sit with us as our companion and to look on our beautiful faces until you pay down some money."
"Haven´t you heard what the author of the Proverb said? 'Love without money is worthless.' "
The doorkeeper said:
"My dear, if you have something, then you are someone, but if you have nothing, then stay without anything."
In this moment, the housekeeper said:
"Sisters, let him be."
"He hasn´t failed us today, while someone else might not have put up with us, and if he may run up any debt, I will settle for him."
The doorman was delighted and thanked her, kissing the ground, but the girl who had been on the couch said:
"We shall only let you sit with us on one condition: you must not ask questions about what doesn´t concern you, if you are inquisitive you will be beaten."
The doorman said:
"My lady, I agree!"
"So, I swear by my head and my eye, and here I am, that I am a man with no tongue."
The housekeeper got up, tucked up her skirts, set out the wine bottles and strained the wine. She set green herbs beside the wine-jar and brought everything that might be needed, including the wine-jar and sat down with her two sisters, while the doorman, sitting between the three of them, thought he must be dreaming. From the wine-jar that she had fetched, she filled a cup, drank it and followed it with a second and a third. Then, she filled the cup and passed it to her sister and finally to the doorman. She recited:
"Drink with pleasure and the enjoyment of good health."
"For this wine is a cure for all disease."
The doorman took the cup in his hand, bowed, thanked her and recited:
"Wine should be drunk beside a trusted friend."
"One of pure birth from the line of ancient heroes."
"The wine is like the wind, sweet if it passes scented flowers."
"But, stinking if it blows over a corpse."
Then, he stated:
"Take wine only from a fawn."
"Subtle in meaning when the lady speaks to you."
"Resembling the same wine."
After the doorman had recited these lines, he kissed the hand of each one of the girls. Then, he drank until he became tipsy, after which he swayed and recited:
"The only blood we are allowed to drink is blood that comes from the grapes."
"So, pour this out for me, and may my life and all that I have, new and old, serve to reward your eyes that are like those of a gazelle."
Then the housekeeper took the cup, filled it and gave it to the doorkeeper, who thanked this and drank it. Then, she filled it for the lady of the house, before pouring another cup and passing it to the doorman, who kissed the ground in front of her, thanking her and reciting:
"Fetch wine. Bring me the brimming glass."
"Pour it for me. This is the water of life."
Then, he went up to the mistress of the house and said:
"Lady, I am your slave, your mamluk and your servant."
He recited:
"By the door there stands a slave of yours."
"Acknowledging your kindly charity."
"May he come in, fair one, in order to see your loveliness?"
"I swear by love that I can´t leave."
She replied:
"Enjoy yourself, drink with pleasure and the well-being that follows the path of health."
He took the cup, kissed her hand and sang:
"I gave her old wine, colored like her cheeks."
"Unmixed and gleaming like a fiery brand."
She kissed the cup and said, laughing:
"How can you pour people's cheeks?"
The doorman said:
"Drink! This comes from my tears."
"Its redness is my blood."
"My breath has heated it within the glass."
She replied with the line:
"Companion, if you have wept blood for me."
"Then, pour it obediently for me to drink well."
Next, she took the cup, drank it and sat down with her sister. They continued drinking, with the doorman seated between them, and as they drank, they danced, laughed and sang, reciting poems and lyrics. The doorman began to play with them, kissing, biting, rubbing, feeling, touching and taking some liberties. One of them would give him morsels to eat, another would cuff him, and the third would bring him scented flowers. With them, he was enjoying the pleasantest of times, as though he was seated among the houris of Paradise. They went on in this way until the wine had taken its effect on their heads and brains.
When it had got the upper hand of them, the doorkeeper stood up, stripped off her clothes until she was naked, and letting down her hair as a veil, she jumped into the pool. She sported in the water, ducking her head and then spitting out the water, after which she took some in her mouth and spat it over the doorman. She washed her limbs and between her thighs, after which she came out from the water and threw herself down on his lap.
She said, pointing to her vagina:
"My darling, my master, what is the name of this?"
He replied:
"Your womb."
She said:
"Oh!"
"Don´t you have shame?"
And she seized him by the neck and started to cuff him.
He said:
"Your vagina."
She cuffed him again on the back of his neck, saying:
"Oh! Oh!"
"How disappointing!"
"Aren't you ashamed?"
He replied:
"Your vulva."
She said:
"Don´t you feel shame for your honor?"
And she struck him a blow with her hand.
Then, he said:
"Your hornet."
In this moment, the lady of the house pounced on him and beat him, saying:
"Don't speak like that."
With every new name that he produced, the girls beat him more and more, until the back of his neck had almost dissolved under their slaps.
They were laughing among themselves, until he asked:
"Then, what do you call this?"
The doorkeeper replied:
"The mint of the dykes."
The doorman said:
"Thanks!"
"I am safe now!"
"Good for you, mint of the dykes."
Then the wine was passed round again, and the housekeeper got up, took off her clothes and threw herself on to the doorman's lap and asked, pointing at her private parts:
"What is this called, light of my eyes?"
He said:
"Your vagina."
She exclaimed:
"Oh! How dirty you are!"
And she struck him with a blow that resounded around the hall, indicating:
"Oh! Oh! Don't you have shame?"
He replied:
"The mint of the dykes."
Nonetheless, blows and slaps still were hit on the back of his neck. He tried another four names, but the girls kept on saying:
"No! No!"
He repeated:
"The mint of the dykes."
And they laughed so much that they fell over backwards. Then they jumped over him to beat his neck, saying:
"No! That's not its name!"
He said:
"Oh my sisters, what is it called?"
They said:
"Husked sesame."
Then, the housekeeper put her clothes back on and they sat, drinking together, with the doorman groaning for the pain in his neck and shoulders.
After the wine had been passed round again, the lady of the house, the most beautiful of the three, stood up and stripped off her clothes.
The doorman grasped the back of his neck with his hand and massaged it, saying:
"My neck and my shoulders are common property."
When the girl was naked, she jumped into the pool, dived under water, played around and washed herself. To the doorman, in her nakedness, she looked like a sliver of the moon, with a face like the full moon when it rises or the dawn when it breaks. He looked at her figure, her breasts and her heavy buttocks as they swayed, while she was naked as she was created, saying: "Oh! Oh!". And reciting:
"If I compare your figure to a sappy branch."
"I load my heart with wrongs and injustice."
"Branches are most beautiful when concealed with leaves."
"While you are the loveliest one when we meet you naked."
By hearing these lines, the girl came out of the pool and sat on the doorman's lap. She pointed at her vulva and said:
"Little master, what is the name of this?"
He replied:
"The mint of the dykes."
And when she exclaimed in disgust, he tried again:
"The husked sesame."
She said:
"Bah!"
He suggested:
"Your womb."
She stated:
"Oh! Oh! Aren't you ashamed?"
And she slapped the back of his neck. Whatever name he produced, she slapped him, again and again, saying:
"No! No!"
Finally, he asked to them:
"Sisters, what is it called?"
They replied:
"The khan of Abu Mansur."
He said:
"At last I have reached safety!"
"Greetings to the khan of Abu Mansur!"
The girl got up and put on her clothes and they all went back to what they had been doing.
For a time the wine circulated among them and the doorman then got up, undressed and went into the pool. The girls looked at him swimming in the water and washing under his beard and beneath his armpits, as they had done. Then, he came out and threw himself into the lap of the lady of the house, with his arms in the lap of the doorkeeper and his feet and legs in the lap of the girl who had bought the provisions. Then he pointed to his penis and said:
"Ladies, what is the name of this?"
They all laughed at this until they fell over backwards. One of them suggested:
"Your tooth."
He said:
"No!"
And he bit each of them.
They said:
"Your air."
But, he repeated:
"No!"
And embraced each one of them.
To be continued during the tenth night…