No stories have done more to shape the image of the jinn in the western imagination as those found in the One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Arabic folktales that grew over time from its origins in the eighth century. The framing conceit of these tales is well-known. Upon the discovery that his wife has been unfaithful to him, a fictional Persian king killed her and married a series of young virgins, only to have each of them put to death the day after the wedding to avoid dishonor and heartbreak. Eventually the king married the daughter of his vizier, the enterprising Scheherazade, who began to tell the king a story every night before going to sleep, but never quite reached the end. The king’s curiosity compelled him to keep Scheherazade alive night after night so that he could learn the sequel to each story. After one thousand and one nights had elapsed, the king found that he had fallen in love with Scheherazade and so spared her life. One of the themes in these stories was the fate of the jinn imprisoned by King Solomon and the perilous situation of those who released them unknowingly from their bondage.
When the stone was removed, there appeared a cavity about three to four feet deep, with a small door and steps for descending further. “My son,” said the magician to Aladdin, “follow carefully what I am going to tell you to do. Go down into this cave and when you get to the foot of the steps which you see, you will find an open door that will lead you into a vast vaulted chamber divided into three large rooms, adjacent to each other. In each room, you will see, on the right and the left, four very large bronze jars, full of gold and silver—but take care not to touch them. Before you go into the first room, pull up your gown and wrap it tightly around you. Then when you have entered, go straight to the second room and the third room, without stopping. Above all, take great care not to go near the walls, let alone touch them with your gown, for if you do, you will immediately die; that’s why I told you to keep it tightly wrapped around you. At the end of the third room there is a gate which leads into a garden planted with beautiful trees laden with fruit. Walk straight ahead and cross this garden by a path which will take you to a staircase with fifty steps leading up to a terrace. When you are on this terrace, you will see in front of you a niche in which there is a lighted lamp. Take the lamp and put it out and when you have thrown away the wick and poured off the liquid, hold it close to your chest and bring it to me. Don’t worry about spoiling your clothes—the liquid is not oil and the lamp will be dry as soon as there is no more liquid in it. If you fancy any of the fruits in the garden, pick as many as you want—you are allowed to do so.”
When he had finished speaking, the magician pulled a ring from his finger and put it on one of Aladdin’s fingers, telling him it would protect him from any harm that might come to him if he followed all his instructions. “Be bold, my child,” he then said. “Go down; you and I are both going to be rich for the rest of our lives.”
Lightly jumping into the cave, Aladdin went right down to the bottom of the steps. He found the three rooms which the magician had described to him, passing through them with the greatest of care for fear he would die if he failed scrupulously to carry out all he had been told. He crossed the garden without stopping, climbed up to the terrace, took the lamp alight in its niche, threw away the wick and the liquid, and as soon as this had dried up as the magician had told him, he held it to his chest. He went down from the terrace and stopped in the garden to look more closely at the fruits which he had seen only in passing. The trees were all laden with the most extraordinary fruit: each tree bore fruits of different colours—some were white; some shining and transparent like crystals; some pale or dark red; some green; some blue or violet; some light yellow; and there were many other colours. The white fruits were pearls; the shining transparent ones, diamonds; the dark red were rubies, while the lighter red were spinel rubies; the green were emeralds; the blue turquoises; the violet amethysts; the light yellow were pale sapphires; and there were many others, too. All of them were of a size and a perfection the like of which had never before been seen in the world. Aladdin, however, not recognizing either their quality or their worth, was unmoved by the sight of these fruits, which were not to his taste—he would have preferred real figs or grapes, or any of the other excellent fruit common in China. Besides, he was not yet of an age to appreciate their worth, believing them to be but coloured glass and therefore of little value. But the many wonderful shades and the extraordinary size and beauty of each fruit made him want to pick one of every colour. In fact, he picked several of each, filling both pockets as well as two new purses which the magician had bought him at the same time as the new clothes he had given him so that everything he had should be new…
Thus weighed down with such, to him, unknown wealth, Aladdin hurriedly retraced his steps through the three rooms so as not to keep the magician waiting too long. After crossing them as cautiously as he had before, he ascended the stairs he had come down and arrived at the entrance of the cave, where the magician was impatiently awaiting him. As soon as he saw him, Aladdin cried out: “Uncle, give me your hand, I beg of you, to help me climb out.” “Son,” the magician replied, “first, give me the lamp, as it could get in your way.” “Forgive me, uncle,” Aladdin rejoined, “but it’s not in the way; I will give it to you as soon as I get out.” But the magician persisted in wanting Aladdin to hand him the lamp before pulling him out of the cave, while Aladdin, weighed down by this lamp and by the fruits he had stowed about his person, stubbornly refused to give it to him until he was out of the cave. Then the magician, in despair at the young man’s resistance, fell into a terrible fury; throwing a little incense over the fire, which he had carefully kept alight, he uttered two magic words and immediately the stone which served to block the entrance to the cave moved back in its place, with the earth above it, just as it had been when the magician and Aladdin had first arrived there…
After all the endearments and the favours his false uncle had shown him, Aladdin little expected such wickedness and was left in a state of bewilderment that can be more easily imagined than described in words. Finding himself buried alive, he called upon his uncle a thousand times, crying out that he was ready to give him the lamp, but his cries were in vain and could not possibly be heard by anyone. And so he remained in the darkness and the gloom…For two days, Aladdin remained in this state, eating and drinking nothing. At last, on the third day, believing death to be inevitable, he raised his hands in prayer and, resigning himself completely to God’s will, he cried out: “There is no strength nor power save in Great and Almighty God!”
However, just as he joined his hands in prayer, Aladdin unknowingly rubbed the ring which the magician had placed on his finger and of whose power he was as yet unaware. Immediately from the ground beneath him, there rose up before him a jinni of enormous size and with a terrifying expression, who continued to grow until his head touched the roof of the chamber and who addressed these words to Aladdin: “What do you want? Here I am, ready to obey you, your slave and slave of all those who wear the ring on their finger, a slave like all the other slaves of the ring.”
At any other time and on any other occasion, Aladdin, who was not used to such visions, would perhaps have been overcome with terror and struck dumb at the sight of such an extraordinary apparition, but now, preoccupied solely with the danger of the present situation, he replied without hesitation: “Whoever you are, get me out of this place, if you have the power to do so.” No sooner had he uttered these words than the earth opened up and he found himself outside the cave at the very spot to which the magician had led him.
That night Aladdin, having had no rest in the underground cave where he had been buried and left to die, fell into a deep sleep from which he did not awake until late the following morning. He arose and the first thing he said to his mother was that he needed to eat and that she could not give him a greater pleasure than to offer him breakfast. “Alas, my son,” she sighed, “I haven’t got so much as a piece of bread to give you—yesterday evening you ate the few provisions there were in the house. But be patient for a little longer and I will soon bring you some food. I have some cotton yarn I have spun. I will sell it to buy you some bread and something else for our dinner.” “Mother,” said Aladdin, “leave your cotton yarn for some other occasion and give me the lamp I brought yesterday. I will go and sell it and the money I get will help provide us with enough for both breakfast and lunch, and perhaps also for our supper.”
Taking the lamp from where she had put it, Aladdin’s mother said to her son: “Here it is, but it’s very dirty. With a little cleaning I think it would be worth a little more.” So she took some water and some fine sand in order to clean it, but no sooner had she begun to rub it than all of a sudden there rose up in front of them a hideous jinni of enormous size, who, in a ringing voice, address her thus: “What do you want? Here am I, ready to obey you, your slave and the slave of all those who hold the lamp in their hands, I and the other slaves of the lamp.”
But Aladdin’s mother was in no state to reply; so great was her terror at the sight of the jinni’s hideous and frightening countenance that at the first words he uttered she fell down in a faint. Aladdin, on the other hand, had already witnessed a similar apparition while in the cave, and so, wasting no time and not stopping to think, he promptly seized the lamp. Replying in place of his mother, in a firm voice he said to the jinni: “I am hungry, bring me something to eat.” The jinni disappeared and a moment later returned, bearing on his head a large silver bowl, together with twelve dishes also of silver, piled high with delicious foods and six large loaves as white as snow, and in his hands were two bottles of exquisite wine and two silver cups. He set everything down on the sofa and then disappeared.
Aladdin’s mother was greatly astonished by what her son told her and by the appearance of the jinni. “But, Aladdin, what do you mean by these jinn of yours?” she said. “Never in all my life have I heard of anyone I know ever having seen one. By what chance did that evil jinni come and show itself to me? Why did it come to me and not to you, when it had already appeared to you in the treasure cave?”
“Mother,” replied Aladdin, “the jinni who has just appeared to you is not the same as the one that appeared to me; they look like each other to a certain extent, being both as large as giants, but they are completely different in appearance and dress. Also, they have different masters. If you remember, the one I saw called himself the slave of the ring which I have on my finger, while the one you have just seen called himself the slave of the lamp which you had in your hands. But I don’t believe you can have heard him; in fact, I think you fainted as soon as he began to speak.”
“What?” cried his mother. “It’s your lamp, then, that made this evil jinni appear to me rather than to you? Take it out of my sight and put it wherever you like; I don’t want ever to touch it again. I would rather have it thrown out or sold than run the risk of dying of fright touching it. If you were to listen to me, you would also get rid of the ring. One should not have anything to do with jinn; they are demons and our Prophet had said so.”
[The fisherman] looked up to heaven and said: “O my god, you know that I only cast my net four times a day. I have done this thrice and got nothing, so this time grant me something on which to live.” He pronounced the Name of God and cast his net into the sea. He waited until it had settled and then he tried to pull it in, but found that it had snagged on the bottom…The fisherman stripped off his clothes and, after diving in, he worked his hardest to drag the net to shore. Then, when he opened it up, he found in it a brass bottle with a lead seal, imprinted with the inscription of our master Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. The fisherman was delighted to see this, telling himself that it would fetch ten gold dinars if he sold it in the brass market. He shook it and, discovering that it was heavy as well as sealed, he said to himself: “I wonder what is in it? I’ll open it up and have a look before selling it.” He took out a knife and worked on the lead until he had removed it from the bottle, which he then put down on the ground, shaking it in order to pour out its contents. To his astonishment, at first nothing came out, but then there emerged smoke which towered up into the sky and spread over the surface of the ground. When it had all come out, it collected and solidified; a tremor ran through it and it became an ‘ifrit with his head in the clouds and his feet on the earth. His head was like a dome, his hands were like winnowing forks and his feet like ships’ masts. He had a mouth like a cave with teeth like rocks, while his nostrils were like jugs and his eyes like lamps. He was dark and scowling.
When he saw this ‘ifrit the fisherman shuddered; his teeth chattered; his mouth dried up and he could not see where he was going. At the sight of him the ‘ifrit exclaimed: “There is no god but the God of Solomon, His prophet. Prophet of God, do not kill me for I shall never disobey you again in word or in deed.” “ ‘Ifrit,” the fisherman said, “you talk of Solomon, the prophet of God, but Solomon died eighteen hundred years ago and we are living in the last age of the world. What is your story and how did you come to be in this bottle?” To which the ‘ifrit replied: “There is no god but God. I have good news for you, fisherman.” “What is that?” the fisherman asked, and the ‘ifrit said: “I am now going to put you to the worst of deaths.” “For this good news, leader of the ‘ifrits,” exclaimed the fisherman, “you deserve that God’s protection be removed from you, you damned creature. Why should you kill me and what have I done to deserve this? It was I who saved you from the bottom of the sea and brought you ashore.”
But the ‘ifrit said: “Choose what death you want and how you want me to kill you.” “What have I done wrong,” asked the fisherman, “and why are you punishing me?” The ‘ifrit replied: “Listen to my story,” and the fisherman said: “Tell it, but keep it short as I am at my last gasp.” “Know, fisherman,” the ‘ifrit told him, “that I was one of the apostate jinn, and together with Sakhr, the jinni, I rebelled against Solomon, the son of David, on both of whom be peace. Solomon sent his vizier, Asaf, to fetch me to him under duress, and I was forced to go with him in a state of humiliation to stand before Solomon. ‘I take refuge with God!’ exclaimed Solomon when he saw me, and he then offered me conversion to the Faith and proposed that I enter his service. When I refused, he called for this bottle, in which he imprisoned me, sealing it with lead and imprinting on it the Greatest Name of God. Then, at his command, the jinn carried me off and threw me into the middle of the sea.
“For a hundred years I stayed there, promising myself that I would give whoever freed me enough wealth to last him for ever, but the years passed and no one rescued me. For the next hundred years I told myself that I would open up all the treasures of the earth for my rescuer, but still no one rescued me. Four hundred years later, I promised that I would grant three wishes, but when I still remained imprisoned, I became furiously angry and said to myself that I would kill whoever saved me, giving him a choice of how he wanted to die. It is you who are my rescuer, and so I allow you this choice.”
When the fisherman heard this, he exclaimed in wonder at his bad luck in freeing the ‘ifrit now, and went on: “Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you.” “I must kill you,” insisted the ‘ifrit, “and so choose how you want to die.” Ignoring this, the fisherman made another appeal, calling on the ‘ifrit to show gratitude for his release. “It is only because you freed me that I am going to kill you,” repeated the ‘ifrit, at which the fisherman said: “Lord of the ‘ifrits, I have done you good and you are repaying me with evil. The proverbial lines are right where they say:
“We did them good; they did its opposite,
And this, by God, is how the shameless act.
Whoever helps those who deserve no help,
Will be like one who rescues a hyena.”
“Don’t go on so long,” said the ‘ifrit when he heard this, “for death is coming to you.” The fisherman said to himself: “This is a jinni and I am a human. God has given me sound intelligence which I can use to find a way of destroying him, whereas he can only use vicious cunning.” So he asked: “Are you definitely going to kill me?” and when the ‘ifrit confirmed this, he said: “I conjure you by the Greatest Name inscribed on the seal of Solomon and ask you to give me a truthful answer to a question that I have.” “I shall,” replied the ‘ifrit, who had been shaken and disturbed by the mention of the Greatest Name, and he went on: “Ask your question but be brief.” The fisherman went on: “You say you were in this bottle, but there is not room in it for your hand or your foot, much less the rest of you.” “You don’t believe that I was in it?” asked the ‘ifrit, to which the fisherman replied: “I shall never believe it until I see it with my own eyes.”…
[W]hen the fisherman told the ‘ifrit that he would not believe him until he saw this with his own eyes, a shudder ran through the ‘ifrit and he became a cloud of smoke hovering over the sea. Then the smoke coalesced and entered the jar bit by bit until it was all there. Quickly the fisherman picked up the brass stopper with its inscription and put it over the mouth of the bottle. He called out to the ‘ifrit: “Ask me how you want to die. By God, I am going to throw you into the sea and then build myself a house in this place so that I can stop anyone who comes fishing by telling them that there is an ‘ifrit here who gives anyone who brings him up a choice of how he wants to be killed.”
When the ‘ifrit heard this and found himself imprisoned in the bottle, he tried to get out but could not, as he was prevented by Solomon’s seal, and he realized that the fisherman had tricked him. “I was only joking,” he told the fisherman, who replied: “You are lying, you most despicable, foulest, and most insignificant of ‘ifrits,” and he took up the bottle. “No, no,” called the ‘ifrit, but the fisherman said: “Yes, yes,” at which the ‘ifrit asked him mildly and humbly what he intended to do with him. “I am going to throw you into the sea,” the fisherman told him. “You may have been there for eighteen hundred years, but I shall see to it that you stay there until the Last Trump. Didn’t I say: ‘Spare me, may God spare you, and do not kill me lest God place you in the power of one who will kill you’? But you refused and acted treacherously towards me. Now God has put you in my power and I shall do the same to you…so now I am going to destroy you by throwing you into the sea here, imprisoned in this bottle.” The ‘ifrit cried out: “I implore you, in God’s Name, fisherman, don’t do this! Spare me and don’t punish me for what I did. If I treated you badly, do you for your part treat me well, as the proverb says: ‘You who do good to the evil-doer, know that what he has done is punishment enough for him.’…This is a time for generosity and I promise you that I shall never act against you again but will help you by making you rich.”
At this, the fisherman made the ‘ifrit promise that were he freed, far from hurting his rescuer, he would help him. When the fisherman was sure of this and had made the ‘ifrit swear by the Greatest Name of God, he opened the bottle and the smoke rose up, until it had all come out and had formed into a hideous shape. The ‘ifrit then picked the bottle up and hurled it into the sea, convincing the watching fisherman that he was going to be killed. The man soiled his trousers, crying: “This is not a good sign!” but then his courage came back and he said: “God Almighty has said: ‘Fulfill your promise, for your promise will be questioned.’[3] You gave me your word, swearing that you would not act treacherously to me, as otherwise God will do the same to you, for He is a jealous God Who bides His time but does not forget. I say to you what Duban the wise said to King Yunan: ‘Spare me and God will spare you.’ ”
The ‘ifrit laughed and told the fisherman to follow him as he walked ahead. This the fisherman did, scarcely believing that he was safe. The pair of them left the city, climbed a mountain and then went down to a wide plain. There they saw a pool, and after the ‘ifrit had waded into the middle of it, he asked the fisherman to follow him, which he did. When the ‘ifrit stopped, he told the fisherman to cast his net, and the man was astonished to see that the pond contained coloured fish—white, red, blue, and yellow. He took out his net, cast it and when he drew it in he found four fish, each a different colour. He was delighted by this, and the ‘ifrit said: “Present these to the sultan and he will enrich you. Then I ask you in God’s Name to excuse me, since at this time I know no other way to help you. I have been in the sea for eighteen hundred years and this is the first time that I have seen the face of the land.” After advising the fisherman not to fish the pool more than once a day, he took his leave, speaking words of farewell. Then he stamped his foot on the earth and a crack appeared into which he was swallowed.
[Musa] and his men then rode off with ‘Abd al-Samad in front, guiding them. They had travelled all that day, then a second day and then a third, when they came in sight of a high hill, on whose crest, as they looked, they could see a rider made of brass carrying a broad-headed spear which gleamed almost blindingly. On this statue there was an inscription that read: “You who come to me, if you do not know the road to the City of Brass, rub the rider’s hand. It will turn and you must take whichever direction it points to when it stops; go freely and without fear, for it will lead you to the city.”…[A]ccordingly the emir rubbed the statue’s hand, which turned like lightning and pointed to a different direction from the one that he and his party were taking. So they set off on what turned out to be the right way, and they followed it night and day until they had covered a long distance. Then one day, in the course of their journey, they caught sight of a pillar of black stone in which stood a figure sunk up to its armpits. This had two huge wings and four hands, one pair like those of a man and a second pair with claws like a lion’s paws. The hair on its head was like horses’ tails; it had two eyes like burning coals and in the middle of its forehead a third eye like that of a lynx, from which flashed sparks of fire. The figure itself was black and tall and crying out: “Praise be to God, Who has decreed that I must endure the great affliction of this painful punishment until the Day of Resurrection.” Musa’s men were scared out of their wits by this sight and turned back in fright. Musa himself asked ‘Abd al-Samad what the figure was and when he said that he didn’t know, Musa told him to go up to it and investigate in the hope of finding out more about it. ‘Abd al-Samad said that he was afraid, but Musa told him: “There is no need to fear as he cannot reach you or anyone else, placed as he is.” So ‘Abd al-Samad approached and asked the figure: “What is your name and what are you? What placed you here like this?” It replied: “I am an ‘ifrit of the jinn. My name is Dahish, son of al-A’mash, and I am kept confined here by the might and power of God to undergo torment for such time as He pleases.”
Musa then told the shaikh to ask him why he was imprisoned in the pillar, and when he did, the ‘ifrit said:
“My story is a strange one. One of the children of Iblis had an idol made of red carnelian, which was entrusted to my care and which was worshipped by a great and important sea king, the leader of an army of a million jinn, whose swords were at his disposal and who would answer his summons however difficult matters might be. These jinn, his servants, were under my command and obedient to my orders, and they all rebelled against the authority of Solomon, son of David. As for me, I would enter into the middle of the statue and from it give my commands and prohibitions, and as it happened, the king’s daughter loved it, frequently prostrating herself before it and worshipping it wholeheartedly. She was the loveliest lady of her time, beautiful and graceful, and radiantly perfect. Solomon heard about her and sent a message to her father saying: ‘Give me your daughter in marriage; smash your idol of carnelian and bear witness that there is no god but God and that Solomon is His prophet. If you do that, we shall share alike in both profits and obligations, but if you refuse, I shall bring against you armies you cannot resist. You will have to prepare to answer to God when you have donned your shroud, for my armies will fill every open space and leave you as a figure of the dead past.’
“When Solomon’s messenger arrived, the king showed excessive insolence in his self-esteem and pride. He asked his viziers what they had to say about the message, Solomon’s request for the hand of the princess and his demand that the king destroy the carnelian idol and adopt his religion. They answered: ‘Great king, how can Solomon attack you when you are in the middle of this great sea? Even if he moves against you, he will not be able to defeat you, as the marids fight for you. If you ask for help from the idol that you worship, it will aid you and bring you victory. The best thing to do is to consult your lord’—by which they meant the idol—‘and listen to its reply. If it advises you to fight Solomon, then do so, but otherwise, do not fight.’ On hearing that, the king went immediately to the idol, offering sacrifices and killing sacrificial victims. He prostrated himself before it, shed tears and recited these lines:
My Lord, I know your power, but here is Solomon, who wants you smashed.
My Lord, I seek your aid. Command me and I shall obey.”
The ‘ifrit, half buried in the pillar, then told ‘Abd al-Samad and his listening companions: “In my ignorance and folly, caring nothing for Solomon, I entered the idol and began to recite:
I have no fear of him, I the omniscient.
If he wants to fight me I shall march on him and snatch away his soul.
When the king heard my answer his confidence was strengthened and he decided to give battle. Solomon’s envoy was met with a painful beating when he arrived, and repulsed ignominiously with a threatening message: ‘You are guilty of wishful thinking. Are you threatening me with vain words? Either come to me or I shall come to you.’
“When Solomon’s messenger returned to tell him everything that had happened, Solomon became furiously angry and even more determined. He collected armies of jinn, men, beasts, birds and venomous reptiles. He ordered his vizier al-Dimriyat, the king of the jinn, to gather together marids, and al-Dimriyat mustered six hundred thousand devils, while at his command Asaf ibn Barkhiya collected a force of a million or more men. He provided equipment and arms, after which he and the jinn and men mounted on his flying carpet with the birds flying overhead and the beasts following below. When he reached his destination he encircled the sea king’s island, filling the ground with his forces…When Solomon surrounded the island with his armies, he sent a message to the king saying ‘I have now come, so either defend yourself against my attack or enter my service, acknowledging that I am God’s messenger, breaking your idol, worshipping the One God, the object of all worship, and giving me your daughter in lawful wedlock. Then you and your people must recite the formula: I confess that there is no god but God and that Solomon is the prophet of God. If you say that, then you are assured of safety, while if you refuse it will not help you to try to shelter yourself from my attack on this island. God, the Blessed and Exalted, has commanded the wind to obey me and to carry me to you on this carpet. I shall make an example of you and your punishment will be a lesson to others.’
“When Solomon’s messenger brought his master’s message to the king, the king replied: ‘This demand cannot be met, so tell him that I am coming out against him.’ The messenger went back to Solomon and gave him this reply, after which the king summoned the people of his land and collected a million jinn from among those who were subject to him, to whom he added the marids and devils from the islands and mountain tops. He equipped his armies, opening his armouries and distributing weapons. As for God’s prophet Solomon, he drew up his armies, ordering the wild beasts to divide in two, with one half taking up their station on the right of the men and the other on their left. The birds were to patrol the islands, and when the attack was launched they were to peck out the eyes of their enemies with their beaks and strike at their faces with their wings, while the wild beasts were to savage their horses. ‘To hear is to obey,’ they all replied, ‘for we owe obedience to God and to you, prophet of God.’
“Solomon then set up for himself a marble throne studded with gems and plated with red gold, seating his vizier Asaf ibn Barkhiya on his right, together with the human kings, and his other vizier al-Dimriyat, with the kings of the jinn, on his left. In front of him were the beasts, together with the vipers and the other snakes. They then launched a concerted attack on us and fought against us for two days over a wide battlefield. On the third day, disaster overtook us and God’s judgement came upon us. I was the first to come out against Solomon with my troops, and I told them to hold their positions while I went out to challenge al-Dimriyat. He came to meet me like a huge mountain with blazing flames and billowing smoke, and as he came, he shot at me with a fiery meteor, and this bolt of his proved stronger than my fire. So loudly did he bellow that it seemed to me that the sky had fallen in on me, and the mountains shook at the sound of his voice. At his command, his force then launched a single charge against us; each side shouted against the other; fire and smoke rose high; hearts were almost splitting and the fight became furious. The birds were attacking us from the air and the beasts were fighting on the ground. I continued my duel with al-Dimriyat until we had tired each other out, but then I weakened and my companions and my troops deserted me as the tribes of my marids were routed. At that, Solomon, God’s prophet, called out: ‘Seize this great tyrant, ill-omened and miserable as he is!’ Men attacked men and jinn fought jinn; our king was defeated, while the spoils fell to Solomon as his troops charged ours, with the wild beasts spreading around us to right and left and the birds overhead tearing out eyes, sometimes with their beak, using their wings to strike at men’s faces. The beasts savaged the horses and tore at the men until most of us were stretched on the ground like fallen palm trunks. I myself flew away from al-Dimriyat, but he pursued me over the distance of a three-month journey until I fell into the plight in which you see me.”