KNOW, my daughter, that there was once a merchant, master of riches and cattle, married and the father of children; to whom All&h had also given understanding of the tongues of beasts and birds. The place of this merchant’s house was in a fertile land on the bank of a river, and in his farm there were an ass and a bull. One day the bull came to the stable where the ass was lodged and found it well swept and watered, with well-winnowed barley in the manger and on the ground well-sifted straw, and the ass lying there at his ease. (For when his master mounted him it would only be for some short ride that chance demanded, and the ass would quickly return to his rest.) Now on that day the merchant heard the bull say to the ass: ‘Give you joy of your food, and may you find it healthy, profitable, and of a good digestion! I myself am weary; but you are rested. You eat well- winnowedbarley and are cared for; and if, on occasion, your master mounts you, he brings you quickly back. As f...
The Tale of King Shahrya-r and of his Brother, King Shahzama-n It is related—but Allah is all wise and all knowing, all powerful and all beneficent—that there was, in the tide and show of ancient time and the passage of the age and of the moment, a king among the kings of S&s&n, in the isles of India and China. He was master of armies and auxiliaries, of slaves and of a great following; and he had two sons, one tall and the other small. Both were heroic horsemen; but the taller was the greater in this exercise and reigned over lands and governed with justice among men, so that the peoples of the land and of the kingdom loved him. His name was King Shahry&r. The smaller brother was called King Shahzam&n and ruled over Samarkand al-Ajam. Both lived in their countries and were just rulers of the people for a space of twenty years; by the end of which time each was at the height of his splendour and his growth. This was the way with them until the tall king was seized by a ...
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