CHAPTER XLV
STORY OF THE WISE KING AND THE WICKED GENI.
'Once upon a time there was a king of Sidon, who had a daughter, and in beauty she surpassed all the maids of Asia. You must know that this was in the days when all the kingdom of Frangistan was hidden in darkness, and when none dwelt there but little men who lived on human flesh, whose faces were in their stomachs, who had but one leg, with which they made prodigious leaps in the dark from the summit of one hill to the summit of another, and when there dwelt in Assyria a mighty Sultan, named Solymon Ebn Daood, who ruled all the land that lies between the Euphrates on the east and the Mediterranean on the west, and from Mount Taurus on the north to Arabia on the south.
'He was a great and wondrous king; for after he slew—as an offering unto heaven—those thousand winged horses which came to him out of the sea near Damascus, Allah gave him power over the wind, by which he could cause it to blow at his will, over the hot deserts of Arabia, over Suristan, the Land of Roses, and over his own blessed realm. The Koran tells us, that on this wind, he could transport his mighty throne—the star and work of the Genii—from Damascus unto the hot shores of the Indian sea, in a single day; and unto him were subjected all the winged Genii; all the blue devils who dive for pearls in the sea of Kolzom, and those who build cities of gold and silver, and palaces of precious stones.
'Having gone to war with the king of Sidon, whose territories he had desolated by a cold north wind, he resolved to besiege the city, and ordered his magic carpet to be spread without the gates of Mecca, and it reached therefrom half-way to Jidda on the seashore. This carpet was a mighty piece of green silk fabricated by the Genii, who did all that he commanded them to do, as we are told in the 22nd Chapter of the Holy Koran. On this carpet stood the throne whereon he was seated, and around it were all his army, horse and foot, bowmen and spearmen, slingers and swordsmen, marshalled by Asaf the vizier.
'The moment they were all in order, he commanded them, to the number of a hundred thousand, to keep steady in their ranks, and avoid the edge of the carpet; then he placed his magic signet ring to his lips, and lo! There came a wind out of the eastern sky which lifted up the carpet, with the throne, the troops, and all that were thereon, and bore it through the air so swiftly that like the shadow of a cloud, they traversed all the blue vault of heaven, above Khaibar, where the well of bitter water flows; over the mountains that look down on Tabuc; over Arabia the Rocky; over the domes of Jerusalem, and the dark waves of the Dead Sea, and over Acre, until they alighted on the sea shore of Phoenicia, near the city of Sidon, which stands on a plain that extends two miles inward from the ocean; and this was but the journey of half a day to Solymon and his air-borne host.
'In great terror, the king of Sidon, when he saw this vast cloud darkening all the sky above the city, shut up his daughter Jerada, who had black hair that hung down to her knees, and who had eyes that were larger than her mouth; he placed her in a great round tower, which stands upon a mountain near the sea, and was built for him by the Geni Sakhur, who was his chief friend. But Solymon assaulted the city, sacked and destroyed its manufactories of linen and fine purple dyes, its schools of commerce and astronomy. He slew the king, while Asaf stormed the tower upon the mountain, and capturing the beautiful Jerada, brought her safely to Mecca before nightfall, and before the cry for evening prayer had rung from the minarets of the temple; and with her were his throne, his soldiers, and all the plunder of the Phoenician capital covering the magic carpet—and all this was but the task of one day.
'But with all his power, this mighty Sultan now became the slave of his slave, and the worshipper of his bondswoman; for Jerada was beautiful as a houri of Paradise. Her figure was tall and full of majesty and grace. Her beauty was like her bearing, noble as became the daughter of a king. Her voice was sweetly modulated, and of all his three hundred and ten wives, not one could wile or soothe the soul of Solymon like Jerada, when her snowy arms were thrown around the harp, and she sang the songs of Palestine. Veiled by long black lashes, her eyes were violet coloured, and of a deep, strange, and mournful tint and expression—as she never forgot that she was the daughter of Sidon's fallen king. Her skin was white as the foam on the sea; her hands and arms were exquisite; her manner soft and polished; her spirit gentle; her intelligence quick; her wit brilliant; and as his own unfathomable soul, the great lord of all Assyria loved her.
'But in her secret heart, Jerada never ceased to lament the fall of Sidon and her father's fate; and a thousand times did Solymon surprise her in her chamber, weeping bitterly. Then his heart smote him for the wrong he had done to one so fair, and he desired the Genii to fashion an image of the slaughtered king, and to mould it of wax, painted like life; to clothe it in fine robes of Tyrian purple, and to set upon its head the captured crown of Sidon. This image was placed in the chamber of Jerada, where she and her maidens wept at its feet and worshipped it morning and evening for the term of forty days; but, on Asaf the vizier discovering this wicked practice, he hastened in terror to Solymon and said,
'"Dost thou permit this foul idolatry? If so, the curse that fell on Ad will fall on thee, and this worship of a waxen image must not be permitted in the palace."