Refractory vassals.
Byron, Werner, i. (1822).
But be it as it is, the time may come
His name [Napoleon’s] shall beat th’ alarm like Ziska’s drum.
Byron, Age of Bronze, iv. (1819).
Zobeide [Zo-bay´de], half-sister of Amīnê. She had two sisters, who were turned into little black dogs by way of punishment for casting Zobeidê and the prince from the petrified city into the sea. Zobeidê was rescued by the fairy serpent, who had metamorphosed the two sisters, and Zobeidê was enjoined to give the two dogs a hundred lashes every day. Ultimately, the two dogs were restored to their proper forms, and married two calenders, sons of kings; Zobeidê married the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid; and Aminê was restored to Amin, the caliph’s son, to whom she was already married.--Arabian Nights (“History of Zobeidê”).
While the caliph was absent from Bagdad, Zobeidê[Zobeidê] caused his favorite (named Fetnab) to be buried alive, for which she was divorced.--Arabian Nights (“Ganem, the Slave of Love”).
Zohak, the giant who keeps the “mouth of hell.” He was the fifth of the Pischdadian dynasty, and was a lineal descendant of Shedâd, king of Ad. He murdered his predecessor, and invented both flaying men alive and killing them by crucifixion. The devil kissed him on the shoulders, and immediately two serpents grew out of his back and fed constantly upon him. He was dethroned by the famous blacksmith of Ispahan´, and appointed by the devil to keep hell-gate.--D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale (1697).
Zohara, the queen of love, and mother of mischief. When Harût and Marût were selected by the host of heaven to be judges on earth, they judged righteous judgment till Zohara, in the shape of a lovely woman, appeared before them with her complaint. They then both fell in love with her and tried to corrupt her, but she flew from them to heaven; and the two angel-judges were for ever shut out.
The Persian Magi have a somewhat similar tradition of these two angels, but add that after their “fall,” they were suspended by the feet, head downwards, in the territory of Babel.