This is from the opening story of the Arabian nights.
The good King Shahriar, finding his favorite wife in bed with another man, virtuously and expertly cuts them into four pieces with one stroke of his scimitar. He then sets out with another king, widowed under similar circumstances, to travel the world in a thorough survey and study of the wicked ways of women.
Standing on a remote beach they see a mighty genie rise out of the sea, carrying a box bound with many chains. The kings scuttle up a tall palm tree and from that hiding place watch the monster unlock and open the box. Out of it steps a beautiful lady. After a tender interlude, the ifrit goes to sleep. The lady disengages herself from him and gently deposits his face on the sand, where he lays "snoring and snarkling like thunder".
She looks hopefully around, spots the two royal Arabs, and invites them down for more love-making. They respectfully decline on the grounds that this might offend her big boyfriend. She assures them that if they continue to behave in so unappreciative and ungentlemanly a manner, she will wake the genie and point them out to him, in which case he would pull the palm up by the roots and destroy them both. Without further argument they slide down and comply with her wishes.
As souvenirs of their affection, she asks for the seal ring that each king wears on his finger. She drops these into a potato sack that is already almost full of seal rings. Obviously, neither the infrit’s great power nor his elaborate precautions have protected him.
The kings head for home, saying only to each other, in awed tones, "Allah! Allah!" But before they pass out of sight around the next point they look back. They see the lady climb back into the box. The genie carefully wraps and locks the chains around it, and carries it down into the ocean.
This leads to the story of Shahriar and Scheherezade.
This is from the opening story of the Arabian nights.
The good King Shahriar, finding his favorite wife in bed with another man, virtuously and expertly cuts them into four pieces with one stroke of his scimitar. He then sets out with another king, widowed under similar circumstances, to travel the world in a thorough survey and study of the wicked ways of women.
Standing on a remote beach they see a mighty genie rise out of the sea, carrying a box bound with many chains. The kings scuttle up a tall palm tree and from that hiding place watch the monster unlock and open the box. Out of it steps a beautiful lady. After a tender interlude, the ifrit goes to sleep. The lady disengages herself from him and gently deposits his face on the sand, where he lays "snoring and snarkling like thunder".
She looks hopefully around, spots the two royal Arabs, and invites them down for more love-making. They respectfully decline on the grounds that this might offend her big boyfriend. She assures them that if they continue to behave in so unappreciative and ungentlemanly a manner, she will wake the genie and point them out to him, in which case he would pull the palm up by the roots and destroy them both. Without further argument they slide down and comply with her wishes.
As souvenirs of their affection, she asks for the seal ring that each king wears on his finger. She drops these into a potato sack that is already almost full of seal rings. Obviously, neither the infrit’s great power nor his elaborate precautions have protected him.
The kings head for home, saying only to each other, in awed tones, "Allah! Allah!" But before they pass out of sight around the next point they look back. They see the lady climb back into the box. The genie carefully wraps and locks the chains around it, and carries it down into the ocean.
This leads to the story of Shahriar and Scheherezade.