The morning now dawned and Scheherazade broke off from what she had been allowed to tell. Later, the thirteenth night arrived. She continued speaking:
"I have heard that the second dervish…"
"Oh auspicious king!"
Continuation of the story of the twelfth night…
The second dervish continued talking to the lady of the house.
As soon as I had delivered a violent kick, it grew dark. There was thunder and lightning, the earth shook and everything went black. My head cleared immediately and I asked the girl: "What has happened?"
She said:
"The efrit has come."
"Didn't I warn you?"
"You have brought harm on me, but you must escape and remain safe."
"Escape by the way that you came."
I was so scared that I forgot my shoes and my axe. Then, when I had climbed up two steps, I turned to look back and I caught sight of a cleft appearing in the earth from which emerged a hideous efrit, who asked to the girl:
"Why do you disturb me?"
"What has happened to you?"
She replied:
"Nothing has happened to me."
"But I was feeling depressed and I wanted to cheer myself by having a drink. So, I drank a little, and then I was about to relieve myself, but my head was heavy and I fell against that dome."
However, the efrit said:
"You are lying!"
And looking through the palace, by right and left, he caught sight of the shoes and the axe.
He exclaimed:
"These must belong to a man!"
"Who was it that came to you?"
She answered:
"I have only just seen these things."
"Maybe you must have brought them with you."
The efrit cried:
"Non-sense!"
"You don't deceive me, you harlot."
Then, he stripped her naked, and stretched her out, fastening her to four pegs. He started to beat her in order to force her to confess, and as I could not bear to listen to her weeping, I climbed up the staircase, trembling with fear, and when I got to the top, I put the trapdoor back in its place and covered it with earth. I bitterly repented about what I had done, and I remembered how beautiful the girl was and how this damned efrit was torturing her, how she unjustly had been there for twenty-five years and what was happening to her because of me. I also thought about my father and his kingdom, and how I had become a woodcutter, and how my cloudless days had darkened. I recited:
"If one day Time afflicts you with disaster, ease and hardship come each in turn."
I walked away and returned to my friend, the tailor, whom I found waiting for me in some fever of anxiety. He said:
"My heart was with you all last night."
"I was afraid that you had fallen victim to a wild beast or something else, but praise be to Allah that you are safe."
I thanked him for his concern and words. I entered my own quarters, where I started to think about what had happened to me, blaming myself for the impulsiveness that had led me to kick the dome. While I was thinking this over, the tailor came in to tell me that outside there was a Persian sheikh looking for me, who had my axe and my shoes. He had taken them to the woodcutters and told them that, at the call of the muezzin, he had gone out to perform the dawn prayer and had found the shoes when he had got back. As he did not know whose they were, he asked about their owner. The tailor also said:
"The woodcutters recognized your axe, told him where you were, and he is sitting in my shop." "Go to thank him and recover your axe and your shoes."
By hearing these words, I turned pale and became distraught. While I was in this state, the floor of my room split open and from it emerged the Persian, who turned out to be none other than the efrit. In spite of the severest of tortures that he had inflicted on the girl, she had made no confession. He had then taken the axe and the shoes and had told her:
"As certainly, as I am Jirjis of the seed of Iblis, I will fetch the owner of this axe and these shoes."
He went with his story to the woodcutters, after which he came after me. Without pausing, he snatched me up and flew off with me into the air, and before I knew what was happening he came down and plunged under the earth. He took me to the palace where I had been before and my eyes brimmed with tears as I saw the girl, staked out naked with the blood pouring from her sides.
The efrit took hold of her and said:
"Is this your lover?"
She looked at me and expressed:
"I don't recognize him and I have never seen him before."
The efrit said:
"In spite of this punishment, are you not going to confess?"
Again, she insisted:
"I have never seen this man in my life and I can´t tell lies against him."
Then, the efrit stated:
"If you don't know him…"
"Take this sword and cut off his head."
She took the sword, came to me and stood by my head. I gestured to her with my eyebrows, while tears ran down my cheeks, and she understood my gesture, replying with one of her own, as if to say:
"You have done all this to us."
I made a sign to say: "Now is the time for forgiveness" And in my thoughts, I was reciting:
"My glance expresses the words that are on my tongue,
And my love reveals what is concealed within.
We met as the tears were falling.
Though I was silent, my eyes spoke of you.
She gestured and I understood the meaning in her eyes.
I signed to her with my fingers and she understood.
Our eyebrows settled the affair between us.
And we kept silence, but love spoke."
When I had finished the poem, the girl threw down the sword and said:
"How can I cut off the head of someone whom I do not know and who has done me no harm? My religion does not allow this."
Then, she stepped back, and the efrit replied:
"It is not easy for you to kill your lover, and because he spent a night with you, you endure this punishment and do not admit what he did. Like feels pity for like."
Then, he turned to me and said:
"Young man, I suppose that you too don't recognize her?"
I answered:
"Who is she?"
"I have never seen her before."
The efrit expressed:
"Then take this sword and cut off her head."
"In this way, I shall be sure that you don't know her at all, and I shall then allow you to go free without doing you any harm."
I said:
"Yes!"
Ad taking the sword, I advanced eagerly and raised my hand, but the girl gestured to me with her eyebrows: "I did not fail you. Is this the way that you repay me?" I understood her meaning and signed to her with my eyes: "I shall ransom you with my life", and it was as though our inner tongues were reciting:
"How many a lover has used his eyes to tell his loved one of the secret that he kept.
With a glance that said: 'I know what happened.'
How beautiful is the glance! How elegant the expressive eye!
The one writes with his eyelids.
The other recites with the pupil of the eye."
My eyes filled with tears and I threw away the sword and said:
"Oh powerful efrit, great hero, if a woman, defective as she is in understanding and in religious faith, thinks that it is not lawful to cut off my head, how can it be lawful for me to cut off hers when I have not seen her before?"
"I shall never do that even if I have to drain the cup of death."
The efrit said:
"The two of you know how to pay each other back for favors, but I shall show you the consequence of what you have done."
Then, he took the sword and cut off one of the girl's hands, after which he cut off the other. With four blows, he cut off her hands and her feet, as I watched, convinced that I were going to die, while she took farewell of me with her eyes. The efrit said: "You are whoring with your eyes", and he struck off her head.
He turned to me and said:
"Mortal, our code allows us to kill an unfaithful wife. I snatched away this girl on her wedding night when she was twelve years old and she has known no other, only me."
"I used to visit her for one night in every ten in the shape of a Persian."
"When I was sure that she had betrayed me, I killed her."
"As for you, I am not certain that you have played me false, but I cannot let you go unscathed, so make a wish."
Lady, I was delighted and asked:
"What wish can I make?"
The efrit said:
"You can tell me what shape you want me to transform you into."
"That of a dog or an ape."
I was hoping that he would forgive me and so I said:
"By Allah!"
"If you forgive me, Allah will forgive you."
"You have spared a Muslim who has done you no harm."
I implored him with the greatest humility, and, standing before him, I cried:
"I am wrong!"
He said:
"Don't talk so much."
"I am not far from killing you, but I will give you one chance."
I said:
"Forgiveness from you better."
"So forgive me as the envied forgive the envier."
He asked:
"How was that?"
I answered:
"Oh efrit!"
"It is said that in a certain city there were two men living in two houses joined by a connecting wall. One of these two envied the other and because of this he used the evil eye against him and did all he could to injure him. So far did this envy increase that the envier lost appetite and no longer enjoyed the pleasure of sleeping, while the man whom he envied grew more and more prosperous, and the more the envier tried to gain the upper hand, the more the other's prosperity increased and spread."
"On hearing of his neighbor's envy and of his attempts to injure him, he moved away from the district, leaving the country and saying: 'By Allah!' 'I shall abandon worldly things for his sake.' He settled in another city and bought a piece of land there in which was a well with an old water wheel. On this land, he endowed a small mosque for which he bought everything that was needed, and there he devoted himself with all sincerity to the worship of Almighty Allah. Fakirs and the poor flocked there from every quarter, and his fame spread in that city until eventually his envious neighbor heard how he had prospered and how the leading citizens would go to visit him."
"So, he came to the mosque where the object of his envy gave him a warm welcome and showed him the greatest honor. The envier then said: 'I have something to tell you. This is why I have made the journey to see you. So, get up and come with me.' The other did this and taking the envier's hand, he walked to the farthest end of the mosque."
"The envier said: 'tell the fakirs to go to their rooms, for I can only speak to you in private where no one can hear us.' The envied did this, and the fakirs went to their rooms as they were told. The two then walked on a little until they came to the old well and there the envier pushed his victim into it, without anyone knowing. He then left the mosque and went on his way, thinking that he had killed his former neighbor."
"However, the well was inhabited by jinns, one caught the falling man and lowered him gently on to the bedrock. They asked each other whether any of them knew who he was. Most said no, but one of them expressed: 'This is the man who fled from his envier and who settled in this city where he founded this mosque. We have listened with delight to his invocations and to his reading of the Quran. The envier travelled to meet him and by a trick threw him down into our midst. But news of him has reached the king, who is intending to visit him tomorrow on the matter of his daughter.' "
"One of the jinn asked: 'What is wrong with his daughter?' The other replied: 'She is possessed by an evil spirit', 'the jinni Marwan ibn Damdam is in love with her. If this man knew how to treat her, he could cure her, for the treatment is the easiest possible.' The other asked: 'What is it?' 'The black cat that he has with him in the mosque has a white spot as big as a dirham (coin) at the end of its tail. If he takes seven of its white hairs and uses them to fumigate the girl, the evil spirit will leave her head and never return and she will be cured there and then.' "
"The man was listening to all this, and so it was that the next morning, when dawn broke and the fakirs came, they found the sheikh rising out of the well, and as a result he became an amazing figure to them. Since he had no other medicines, he took seven hairs from the white spot at the end of the black cat's tail and carried them away with him. The sun had scarcely risen when the king arrived with his escort and his great officers of state. He told his men to wait and went in to visit the king, who welcomed him warmly and said: 'Shall you tell me why you have come to me?' 'Please do this!' The man said: 'I have come to visit you, in order to ask about your daughter.' The king agreed: 'Send someone to fetch her', the man said: 'and I hope, if Allah Almighty wills it, that she will be cured immediately.' The king gladly sent for his daughter, who was brought tied up and manacled."
"The man sat her down and spread a curtain over her, after which he used the seven cat hairs to fumigate her. The evil spirit that was in her head cried out and left. She then recovered her senses, covered her face and said: 'What is all this? Who has brought me here?' "
"The joy that the king felt was not to be surpassed. He kissed his daughter's eyes and then the hands of the sheikh, after which he turned to his state officials and said: 'What do you say?' What does the man who cured my daughter deserve?' 'He should marry her'. They replied: 'You are right!' And he married the man to his daughter, making him his son-in-law. In few time, the vizier died and when the king asked who should replace him, the courtiers said: 'Your son-in-law.' So, he was appointed vizier and soon after that, the king died and people asked who should be made king, the answer was: 'The vizier.' Accordingly he was enthroned and ruled as king."
"One day, as he was riding out, the envier happened to be passing by and saw the man he envied in his imperial state among his emirs, viziers and officers of state. The king's eye fell on him and, turning to one of his viziers, he said: 'Bring me that man, but do not alarm him.' When his envious neighbor was brought to him, the king said: 'Give this man a thousand mithqals (1000 x 4.25 grams) of gold from my treasury, load twenty camels for him with trade goods, and send a guard with him to escort him to his land.' Then he took his leave of the man who envied him, turned away from him and did not punish him for what he had done."
I said:
"See then, efrit, how the envied forgave the envious, who had started by envying him, then injured him, followed him, and eventually threw him into the well, intending to kill him. His victim did not pay him back for these injuries but forgave and pardoned him."
At this point, lady, I wept most bitterly before him and recited:
"Forgive those who do wrong, for the wise man.
Forgives wrongdoers for their evil deeds.
If every fault is mine,
Every forgiveness should be yours.
Who hopes that his superior will pardon him.
Has to forgive inferiors their faults."
The efrit said:
"I shall not kill you, but I will not forgive you."
"Instead, I shall cast a spell on you."
Then he plucked me from the ground and flew up into the air with me until I could see the earth looking like a bowl set in the middle of water. He set me down on a mountain and taking some earth, he muttered over it, cast a spell and scattered it over me, saying:
"Leave this shape of yours and become an ape."
Immediately, I became a hundred-year-old ape, and when I saw myself in this ugly form, I wept over my plight, but I had to endure Time's tyranny, knowing that no one is Time's master. After climbing down from the mountain top, I found a wide plain across which I travelled for a month before ending at the shore of the salt sea. I stayed there for some time until suddenly I caught sight of a ship out at sea that was making for the shore with a fair breeze. I hid myself behind a rock and waited until it came by, when I jumped down into it, one of the merchants on board cried: "Remove this". The captain said: "Let's kill it". Other said: "I will do that with this sword". I clung to the hem of the captain's clothes and wept copious tears.
The captain now felt pity for me and told the merchants:
"This ape has taken refuge with me and I have granted it to him. He is now under my protection, so let no one trouble or disturb him."
He began to treat me with kindness, and as I could understand whatever he said, I did everything that he wanted and acted as his servant on the ship, so that he became fond of me. The ship had a fair wind for fifty days, after which we anchored by a large city, with a vast population. As soon as we had arrived and the ship had anchored, mamluks sent by the local king came on board. They congratulated the merchants on their safe voyage and passed on further congratulations from the king. Then they said:
"The king has sent you this scroll of paper, on which each one of you must write one line. The king's vizier was a calligrapher and as he is now dead, the king has taken the most solemn of oaths that he will only appoint as his successor someone who can write as well as he did."
The merchants were then handed a scroll which was ten cubits long and one cubit in breadth. Every last one of them who knew how to write, did so, and then I, in my ape's form, snatched the scroll from their hands. They were afraid that I was going to tear it and they tried to stop me, but I gestured to them to tell them I could write, and the captain signaled to them to leave me alone. He said:
"If he makes a mess of it, we can drive him away, but if he can write well, I shall take him as a son, for I have never seen a more intelligent ape."
Then, I took the pen, dipped it in the inkwell and wrote in the ruka'i script:
"Time has recorded the excellence of the generous.
But up till now your excellence has not been written down.
May Allah not orphan all humankind of you.
Who are the mother and father of every excellence."
I wrote in the raihani script:
"He has a pen that serves every land.
Its benefits are shared by all humankind.
The Nile cannot rival the loveliness.
That your five fingers extend to every part."
In the thuluth script, I wrote:
"The writer perishes but what he writes remains recorded for all time.
Write only what you will be pleased to see when the Day of Resurrection comes."
I wrote in naskh:
"When we were told you were about to leave.
As Time's misfortunes had decreed.
We brought to the mouths of inkwells with the tongues of pens.
What we complained of in the pain of parting."
Then, I wrote in tumar script:
"No one holds the caliphate for ever:
If you do not agree, where is the first caliph?
So plant the shoots of virtuous deeds.
And when you are deposed, no one will depose them."
Next, I wrote in muhaqqaq script:
"Open the inkwell of grandeur and of blessings.
Make generosity and liberality your ink.
When you are able, write down what is good.
This will be taken as your lineage and that of your pen."
I handed over the scroll and, after everyone had written a line, it was taken and presented to the king. When he looked at it, mine was the only script of which he approved and he said to his courtiers:
"Go to the one who wrote this, mount him on a mule and let a band play as you bring him here. Then dress him in splendid clothes and bring him to me."
When they heard this, they smiled. The king was angry and exclaimed:
"Damn you!"
"I gave you an order and you are laughing at me!"
They said:
"There is a reason for our laughter."
He asked:
"What is it?
They replied:
"You order us to bring you the writer, but the fact is that this was written by an ape and not a man, and he is with the captain of the ship".
He expressed:
"Is this true?"
They answered:
"Yes, your majesty."
The king was amazed and delighted. He said:
"I want to buy this ape from the captain."
He sent a messenger to the ship, with a mule, a suit of clothes and the band, stating:
"Dress him in these clothes, mount him on the mule and bring him here in a procession."
His men came to the ship, took me from the captain, dressed me and mounted me on the mule. The people were astonished and the city was turned upside down because of me, as the citizens flocked to look at me.
When I was brought before the king, I thrice kissed the ground before him, and when he told me to sit, I squatted on my haunches. Those present were astonished at my good manners and the most amazing of all was the king.
He then told the people to disperse, which they did, leaving me with him, his eunuch and a young mamluk. At the king's command, a table was set for me on which was everything that frisks or flies or mates in nests, such as sandgrouse, quails, and all other species of birds.
The king gestured to me that I should eat with him, so I got up, kissed the ground in front of him and joined him in the meal. Then, when the table cloth was removed, I washed my hands seven times, took the inkwell and the pen, and wrote these lines:
"Turn aside with the chickens in the spring camp of the saucers.
And weep for the loss of fritters and the partridges.
Mourn the daughters of the sandgrouse.
Whom I do not cease to lament.
Together with fried chickens and the stew.
Alas for the two sorts of fish served on a twisted loaf.
How splendid and how tasty was the roasted meat,
With fat that sank into the vinegar in the pots.
Whenever hunger shakes me, I spend the night.
Applying myself to a pie, as bracelets glint.
I am reminded of this merry meal when I eat.
On tables strewn with various brocades.
Endure, my soul; Time is the lord of wonders.
One day is straitened, but the next may bring relief."
I then got up and took my seat some way off. The king looked at what I had written and read it with astonishment. He exclaimed:
"How marvelous!"
"An ape with such eloquence and a master of calligraphy!"
"By Allah!"
"This is a wonder of wonders."
Then some special wine was brought in a glass, which he drank before passing it to me. I kissed the ground, drank and then wrote:
"They burned me with fire to make me speak.
But found I could endure misfortune.
For this reason, hands have lifted me,
And I kiss the mouths of lovely girls."
I added the lines:
"Dawn has called out to the darkness, so pour me wine that leaves the intelligent as a fool.
It is so delicate and pure that I cannot tell whether it is in the glass or the glass is in it."
When the king read the lines, he sighed and said:
"If a man were as cultured as this, he would surpass all the people of his age."
He brought out a chessboard and asked whether I would play with him. I nodded yes and came forward to set out the pieces. I played two games and beat him two times, to his bewilderment. Then I took the inkwell and the pen and wrote these lines on the chessboard:
"Two armies fight throughout the day.
The battle growing fiercer every hour.
But when night's darkness covers them.
Both sleep together in one bed."
On reading this, the king was moved to wonder, delight and astonishment and told a servant: "Go to your mistress, Sitt al-Husn, and tell her that I want her to come here to see this wonderful ape."
The eunuch went off and came back with the lady. When she saw me, she covered her face and said:
"Father, how can you think it proper to send for me in order to show me to men?"
He said:
"There is no one here except for this little mamluk, the eunuch who brought you up, and I, your father. So from whom are you veiling your face?"
She said:
"This ape is a young man, the son of a king, who has been put under a spell by the efrit Jirjis, of the stock of Iblis, who killed his own wife, the daughter of king Iftamus, the lord of the Ebony Islands. You think that he is an ape, but in fact he is a wise and intelligent man."
The king was astonished by his daughter and he looked at me and said:
"Is she saying the true?"
I nodded yes and broke into tears.
The king asked his daughter:
"How did you know that he was under a spell?"
She replied:
"When I was young, I had a cunning old woman who had knowledge of magic, a craft she passed on to me. I remembered what she taught me and have become so skilled in magic that I know a hundred and seventy spells, the least of which could leave the stones of your city behind Mount Qaf and turn it into a deep sea, with its people swimming as fish in the middle of it."
The king said:
"By my life, daughter!"
"Please free this young man so that I can make him my vizier, for he has wit and intelligence."
She replied:
"Willingly!"
And taking a knife in her hand, she cut out a circle…
To be continued during the fourteenth night…