The Prince and the Ebony Horse - Part Three

The Prince went on the Ebony Horse and he flew to the distant land where he had met his beloved princess. 

After landing his horse far away from the palace the Prince slowly walked towards the king. 

Everyone in the kingdom was wary of the Prince because they realized that the Prince could travel to any place, without any walls barring him. 

However the Prince presented himself before the king and said that he loved the princess and wanted to marry her. 

The king decided to accept the offer of the Prince and the marriage preparations of the prince and the princesses were going on in full swing. Unfortunately for the Prince the third magician who had made the Ebony Horse was in this very kingdom. The magician had come here knowing that the Prince had fallen in love with the princess of this kingdom and that eventually the Prince would come here. 

The third magician waited until everyone was working on the preparations of the marriage and then he found the Ebony Horse from the place where the Prince had hidden it. 

Just before the wedding the third magician abducted the princess and flew away with her in the ebony horse.

The Prince was in despair because his princess had been taken away from him and his Ebony Horse was also gone which had left him stranded in the kingdom and with no means of chasing the princess.

Meanwhile the third magician and the princess arrived at a foreign land. 

The people there are shocked looking at the magician and the princess. 

That was when the princess told the people of the foreign land that she had been kidnapped by the magician. 

The third magician was put in prison and the princess was taken to meet the king of the foreign land. 

The princess fell ill with shock and at the heartbreak of being separated from her lover.

Meanwhile the Prince was searching everywhere trying to find out the whereabouts of the third magician and his lover. That was when he overheard some travelers describing the magician and the princess in a far away land. 

The Prince hastily traveled towards the kingdom. 

He arrived there after some time. 

But there the Prince attracted a lot of undue attention and the guards suspect him and throw him in the dark dungeons. 

It is the same dark dungeons that the third magician was placed in. 

The Prince recognized the third magician but the magician is not able to recognise this was the Prince to whose father the magician had presented the ebony horse. 

In the dungeons, the Prince was able to get the third magician to talk and he soon realized that the princess was terribly ill and the King of the land was willing to offer anything to the person who cured her. 

The Prince then came up with a plan to free the princess and himself. 

From the prison he sent word to the king that he could cure the princess. 

As soon as the Prince is brought before the king and the princess, the Prince pretended to study the princess and whispers in her ear without anyone knowing that he was her prince. 

The princess was thrilled on hearing it and struggled not to show anything on her face. 

The Prince meanwhile looked at the king and asked the king to bring him his ebony horse. 

The Prince told the king that the princess had been affected by the devil and he needed the horse to banish the devil from the princess. 

The king of the far-away land had the ebony horse brought to the room where the princess was kept. 

As soon as this happened the Prince took the princess onto the horse and they flew away leaving the king of the foreign land furious but unable to follow them. 

The Prince and the princess happily arrived at their own kingdom. 

The king destroyed the ebony horse so that no one can ever fly it again. 

The Prince then wrote to the princess’ father about his marriage to the princess. 

The princess’ father sent the princess lots of gifts. 

Eventually the Prince succeeded his father and he and his wife ruled happily ever after.

Adapted from the Arabian Nights

The Prince and the Ebony Horse - Part Two

When the Prince saw the Ebony horse he realized that it is a beautifully made machine. He wanted to look at it more closely and he even wanted to try it out. 

The magician realized the Prince’s desire and he saw this as a chance at having his revenge. The magician convinced the Prince to get on the horse. 

But the magician does not tell the Prince how to get out of the horse. 

Soon the magician starts the horse and the Prince flies away with it.

When the Prince was flying far away in the skies, he realized that he did not know how to get the horse back to the ground.

The Prince’s father, the king, was not too happy that his son had been tricked this way and the king threw the third magician in prison. 

The Prince on the sky finally realized that the magician must have made a way to get the horse back to ground and looked around the Ebony Horse more thoroughly. 

He finds a knob near the forehead of the horse and pressed on it.

That was when the horse landed on the ground in a distant land far away from his own kingdom. 

The Prince had landed on the roof of a Royal palace. There were servants who were fast asleep outside. The Prince went inside the room to find the most beautiful princess lying on the bed in the room. 

The princess looks at the Prince and she is unable to take her eyes off him. 

Slowly the princess tells the Prince her unfortunate story. 

Just like the prince’s third sister this princess had been forced to marry an ugly man whom she did not love. 

However in the palace in the distant lands, the four maids who had been asleep outside the princess’s room suspect that the Prince is a magician or a genie because he had managed to come inside the palace without anyone else knowing about it. 

They immediately informed the king that there was a stranger in the princess quarters. 

The king came to the palace and found the Prince talking with the princess. 

The king then ordered that the Prince had to fight the best man of his kingdom if he were to marry the princess. 

The Prince now actually loved the princess on talking to her and wanted to marry her. He agreed to the fight. 

The next day before the fight was to take place the Prince sent for his Ebony Horse which was placed at the roof of the palace. 

The prince let everyone believe that he would ride the horse and fight the best men of the king.

But once the prince mounted the Ebony Horse, he flew away from the place. 

By now everyone in the distant land believed that the prince was not a human but he was either a magician or a genie. 

Back home the Prince is greeted by his family members with great joy. 

They had all believed that the Prince was lost to them forever and on seeing him back they were very happy. 

The king and his happiness also set the third magician free. 

But the Prince never forgot the beautiful princess in the distant land. 

He decided to go back to get her back to his own kingdom and that was when tragedy befell them.

Adapted from the Arabian Nights

The Prince and the Ebony Horse - Part One

Once there was a king who had three beautiful daughters and a handsome son. The king was just and firm and he ruled his kingdom very well. 

Twice a year he opened the gates of his palace where the common people could come to the palace and show the king the unique items that they had managed to procure. 

During one of these events three magicians came to the king with unique items that they had made by themselves. 

The first magician had created a statue which had a clarion in its hand. The magician looked keenly at the king. "If any enemy passes through the gate where the statue is placed  the statue shall blow the clarion  and because of the terrific noise created by the statue the person who hears it will fall dead."

The king was thrilled on hearing this.

The second magician brought a huge disk with a golden peacock in the middle with twenty four smaller peacock chicks at the perimeter of the disk. Every hour the golden peacock moved towards one of the chicks and flapped its wings. 

At the end of a month a silver moon shall rise from the mouth of the peacock. 

The king was very thrilled with these unique items.

The third magician brought an ebony horse made of wood.

The ebony horse was beautiful and special because it could cross the distance taken by a normal horse in a year in a single day and the ebony horse could fly to any place taking its rider with it.

The king had the three items tested and he decided to reward the three magicians. He offered his three daughters in marriage to the three magicians who happily accepted it. 

However the third princess heard the king's order from outside the court and she was unhappy. 

She looked at the man whom her father had promised to get her married to and she saw that it was an old man who had created the ebony horse. 

She was very unhappy that she had to marry such an old and hideous looking man and she ran to her room weeping. 

The Prince, her brother, came outside her room. He was surprised to hear weeping noises from within. 

At that time the Prince came in and asked the princess the reason for her unhappiness. 

The princess told her brother everything. 

The brother then consoled his sister and promised her that he would talk to the king about getting his youngest daughter married to an old man. 

It so happened that the third magician who had created the ebony horse overheard the prince converse with the princess. 

The third magician was determined to avenge himself against the Prince.

Adapted from the Arabian Nights

The Jinn Peri-Banu - Part 2

The third Prince looked some more after he crossed the place where his brother’s arrows had been found. 

Finally he found the arrow. 

The arrow was lying on a rock and judging from the angle that it lay, the third Prince could figure out that the arrow had not been stuck there, but it had rebounded and landed on the rock after hitting something hard. 

The third prince saw some boulders and crossed it and finally found a passage. 

The passage was closed by an iron door. The prince realized that the arrow had rebounded on hitting this iron door.

The Prince pushed through the door and the door opened because there was no lock on the door.

On walking some more inside the passage the Prince was surprised when he saw a huge and lavish palace there. 

A second later he was stunned when a beautiful lady with lovely clothes adorning the costliest jewels that the prince had seen,  walked out of the palace. 

She was graceful and elegant and the Prince could not take his eyes off her.

This was Peri-Banu, the daughter of the Jinn chief and the palace belonged to her.

The Prince saw Peri-Banu and immediately fell in love with her. He wanted to marry her and he was thrilled to know that Peri-Banu had the permission from her parents to marry any man she liked. The princess loved the Prince and she took very good care of him. 

For six months after their marriage the Prince and Peri-Banu lived in the palace very happily.

However six months later the Prince suddenly remembered his kingdom and he wanted to see how his father was faring. 

The princess did not want to send the Prince at first. But Peri-Banu realized that the Prince was genuinely homesick and she allowed him to go and spend some time with his family. However, she wanted him to come back as soon as possible.

Meanwhile back in his kingdom the king was worried sick. 

The first son had become a hermit. 

The second son had married the beautiful girl and he was handling the administration of the state. 

But the third son was missing and the king did not know where to look for him. 

Finally the king approached a sorceress to get more information about the Prince. 

The sorceress looked into her magical items and she could only ascertain that the Prince was alive but beyond that she could not be certain of where the Prince was or where he could be found. 

It was at this time that the Prince came back . The king was overjoyed to see his son.

So for the first time, after spending three days there the Prince happily went back to his home. 

Now that the king is not worried about the welfare of his third son, things went back to normal. 

Peri-Banu was also very happy that the Prince had come back and kept his word.

So every time after that, Peri-Banu sent the Prince to the king’s kingdom, with lavish gifts to greet the king.

Soon the king was curious about the lavish wealth that his son seemed to have. 

Once again the king sent for the sorceress to know the details of the girl who his son had married and the source of the wealth of the prince’s wife. 

The sorceress could not use her magic to find out where the Prince was going back. 

She tried following the Prince but unlike the Prince she could not see the underground passage or the iron door. 

She could not see how the Prince suddenly vanished from there.

So the next time the Prince came to visit the king the sorceress had an idea.

She pretended to be injured and made herself look very old.

After that, she followed the prince making sure that he could not see her. 

Finally when the Prince was just about to enter the iron door the sorceress fainted. 

The kind hearted Prince immediately went and brought the woman back to the palace of the Jinn princess. 

The Jinn princess looked after the sorceress very well and soon the sorceress was sent back to the kingdom. 

That is when the sorceress told the thing everything about the woman whom the third Prince had married.

However, on hearing this, the king became envious and jealous. 

Acting on the advice of the sorceress and one of his own ministers the king suddenly came to believe that the third Prince with the help of the Jinn princess would overthrow him or even kill him. 

The sorceress suggested a novel method for the king to get rid of the Prince and make sure he never came back. 

The sorceress had convinced the king that if he kept making strange demands of the Prince, eventually the Prince would stop coming to the kingdom because he could not meet the demands of the King.

So the next time when the Prince came to see the king the king had a strange request for him. 

The king wanted the Prince to bring a tent large enough for all the members of his court, but with the condition that the tent had to be light to carry. 

The Prince was unaware of his father’ intentions.

Being the dutiful son that he was, he went back to the Jinn princess after his visit to the king and told her what her father had said. 

Jinns were powerful magical beings and using her power the princess was easily able to procure what the king wanted. 

Thereafter the prince presented the same to the king as well. 

Not to be outdone the king this time asked for the water from the Lion Springs. 

This involved a lot of personal danger for the Prince himself, but with the help of the directions of the Jinn princess, the Prince was able to go to the Lion's Spring. There he was able to distract the lions with the carcasses of four animals and take the precious water from the Spring.

The prince gave the water back to the king. 

However this time the king was even more determined to ask for something that could not be granted.

The third time the Prince sadly went back to the Jinn princess.

When the Jinn princess asked the Prince what the king had wanted, the Prince finally told her everything.

The king wanted to meet a ferocious and strong dwarf who carried an iron mallet with him all the time. 

The Jinn princess laughed on hearing this. “There is such a dwarf in this very kingdom. He is my half brother. Of course he will be willing to meet the king on my request.”

The Prince happily took the powerful dwarf to his own kingdom. 

This time on seeing the ferocious and hideous looking dwarf the king was tongue tied and he just could not move at all. 

The dwarf misunderstood the king's silence as rudeness and angrily attacked the rude people around him. 

This led to the massacre in the palace and unfortunately the king, the sorceress and the minister who had ill advised the king did not survive it. 

Thereafter the third Prince along with Peri-Banu came to this kingdom.

The first son wanted to be a hermit and had no desires at all 

The second son and the beautiful girl were given another smaller province to rule.

The Prince and Peri-Banu ruled this kingdom wisely and well.

Adapted from the Arabian Nights.

The Jinn Peri-Banu - Part 1

Long ago there was a king who had three sons. The king also had a niece who was very beautiful. The niece was distinctly related to the king. 

But because the niece's father had died early the king brought up the niece in his own palace.

She was so breathtakingly beautiful that all the three sons of the king fell in love with her. 

The king had originally intended to marry the girl to the royals of the neighbouring countries. But now that all his three sons loved the same girl he realized that he would have to choose among his own sons and decide who among them was the best to marry the beautiful girl. 

So the king devised a simple plan. 

He gave the three princes a simple task. 

The three princes were to go to the world for the next one year and get some rare and unique time and come back to the kingdom at the end of the year. 

The prince who had the most unique item would marry the beautiful girl.

The three princes together set out for their tasks. 

They traveled together until they reached a particular caravan. There the path was divided into three.

The three princes decided to take one path each and to find something and bring back. 

They decided that the Prince who came first would have to wait for the other two and the three of them would go to their palace together.

The first prince traveled to a small village where a busy market was going on. 

There was however one vendor who wanted to sell a carpet for 40,000 gold coins. 

The first Prince was surprised and went to the vendor. 

After talking with the vendor the first Prince realized that the carpet was not an ordinary one. The carpet could take a person from the present place to any place that the owner of the carpet desired, in a matter of seconds.

The first Prince was very happy. 

He realized that this was a unique item and he was convinced that his brothers could not get anything more unique than this.

The first prince was in half the mind to take the carpet and go back to his own kingdom. 

However he remembered the deal between the three of them and he decided to spend some more time in this village before he went back to the caravan where the other two brothers would come.

The second prince went to another busy market in another village. 

There, the second Prince found a particular vendor who was about to sell an ivory tube with mirrors on both sides for 40000 gold coins. Obviously this was not an ordinary ivory tube. The owner could look into the mirror and see anyone that they desired or see anything that they wanted, distance notwithstanding, as they were in the present time.

In order to test the Looking Glass the second prince put it close to his eyes and he could easily see the beautiful girl back in his kingdom. 

She was very happy with her friends in her chamber. 

The second prince was satisfied that the tube worked and he happily paid the vendor the amount he had asked for. 

The second Prince was convinced that what he had was the most unique item ever. 

The third Prince went to another busy market where a man was selling an apple for a very heavy price. Naturally the apple was not an ordinary one but it could cure anyone who smelt it from any disease or injury before death. 

The prince saw the effects of the apple on a man lying on a deathbed. 

The man who was selling it said that the apple had been created by a sage. The sage had apparently saved many people's lives with the apple but the sage’s own death had been too sudden and premature and the sage had not been close to the apple to save his own life. 

The sage's wife needed money because she did not know how to work the Apple and hence through her agents she was selling the apple in the market. 

The third prince brought the apple and decided to go to the caravan. 

He firmly believed that his item was the most unique of them all. 

The three brothers met at the caravan full to the other about what they had obtained during their adventures.

The second brother pulled out his Looking Glass to show to his two brothers.

That was when they were shocked. 

They decided to see the beautiful girl back in the kingdom. 

Unfortunately the beautiful girl was very ill and almost seemed like she was in death bed. 

The first brother immediately used the carpet and brought all the three brothers to the kingdom immediately. 

The third brother with the help of the apple was immediately able to save the beautiful girl's life. 

The king was now in a fix. He could not decide which among the three items were more unique nor could he decide which of the three items had been useful in actually saving the girl's life.

So the king decided to hold another competition among the three princes to decide who would marry the beautiful girl. 

It was a simple competition. Each brother had to throw a shaft into the air and the brother who threw it furthest would win the competition. 

The first brother threw a shaft far away. The second brother threw it further away. The third prince threw it so far that it became invisible. 

The ministers tried to follow the third prince’s shaft in their horses, but could not follow it any more. They were not even sure whether the third brother's shaft had gone underground or to the skies. 

No matter how much they looked they couldn't find the third shaft. So the king decided to stop looking.

It was therefore concluded that the third brother had not even shot the shaft and he had just made it vanish.

Naturally the second brother was declared to be a winner. 

He was the one who could marry the beautiful girl. He married the girl and was very happy. 

The first Prince was so furious that he gave up everything and became a hermit. 

The third Prince was also very sad and he decided to find the shaft which he had shot and which could not be found anywhere.

Adapted from the Arabian nights