The Story of Gulnare of the Sea

There was, in olden time, and in an ancient age and
period, in the land of the Persians, a king named
Shahzeman, and the place of his residence was Khoras-
san. He had not been blest, during his whole life, with a male
child nor a female; and he reflected upon this, one day, and
lamented that the greater portion of his life had passed, and he
had no heir to take the kingdom after him as he had inherited
it from his fathers and forefathers. So the utmost grief befell
him on this account.

Now while he was sitting one day, one of his mamelukes
came in to him, and said to him: "O my lord, at the door is a
slave-girl with a merchant: none more beautiful than she hath
been seen." And he replied: "Bring to me the merchant and
the slave-girl." The merchant and the slave-girl therefore came
to him; and when he saw her, he found her to resemble the
lance in straightness and slenderness. She was wrapped in
a garment of silk embroidered with gold, and the merchant un-
covered her face, whereupon the place was illuminated by her
beauty, and there hung down from her forehead seven locks of
hair reaching to her anklets. The King, therefore, wondered
at the sight of her, and at her beauty, and her stature and just-
ness of form; and he said to the merchant: "O sheikh, for how
much is this damsel to be sold.^" The merchant answered:
'*0 my lord, I purchased her for two thousand pieces of gold of
the merchant who owned her before me, and I have been for
three years travelhng with her, and she hath cost, to the period of
her arrival at this place, three thousand pieces of gold; and
she is a present from me unto thee." Upon this, the king con-
ferred upon him a magnificent robe of honour, and gave orders
to present him with ten thousand pieces of gold. So he took
them, and kissed the hands of the king, thanking him for his
beneficence, and departed. Then the king committed the
damsel to the tirewomen, saying to them: "Amend the state
of this damsel, and deck her, and furnish for her a private
chamber, and take her into it." He also gave orders to his
chamberlains that everything which she required should be con-
veyed to her. The seat of government where he resided was on
the shore of the sea, and his city was called the White City.
And they conducted the damsel into a private chamber, which
chamber had windows overlooking the sea; and the king com-
manded his chamberlains to close all the doors upon her after
taking to her all that she required.

The king then went in to visit the damsel ; but she rose not to
him, nor took any notice of him. So the king said: "It seemeth
that she hath been with people who have not taught her good
manners." And looking at the damsel, he saw her to be a person
surpassing in loveliness, her face was like the disk of the moon
at the full, or the shining sun in the clear sky; and he wondered
at her beauty, extolling the perfection of God, the Creator:
then the king advanced to the damsel, and seated himself by her
side, pressed her to his bosom, and kissed her lips, which he
found to be sweeter than honey. After this, he gave orders to
bring tables of the richest viands, comprising dishes of every
kind; and he ate, and put morsels into her mouth until she was
satisfied; but she spoke not a single word. The king talked to
her, and inquired of her her name ; but she was silent, not utter-
ing a word, nor returning him an answer, ceasing not to hang
down her head toward the ground; and what protected her
from the anger of the king was her beauty, and her tenderness
of manner. So the king said within himself: ''Extolled be the
perfection of God, the Creator of this damsel! How elegant is
she, saving that she doth not speak!" — Then the king asked the
female slaves whether she had spoken; and they answered him.
*'From the time of her arrival to the present moment she hath
not spoken one word, and we have not heard her talk." The
king therefore caused some of them to come, and sing to her, and
make merry with her, thinking that then she might perhaps
speak. Accordingly the female slaves played before her with
all kinds of musical instruments, and enacted sports and other
performances, and they sang so that every one who was present
was moved with delight, except the damsel, who looked at them
and was silent, neither laughing nor speaking. So the heart of
the king was contracted. He however inclined to her entirely,
paying no regard to others, but relinquishing all the rest of his
favourites.

He remained with her a whole year, which seemed as one
day, and still she spoke not; and he said to her one day, when
his passion was excessive: "O desire of souls, verily the love that
I have for thee is great, and I have relinquished for thy sake all
my worldly portion, and been patient with thee a whole year.
I beg God that He will, in His grace, soften thy heart toward me,
and that thou mayest speak to me. Or, if thou be dumb, inform
me by a sign, that I may give up hope of thy speaking. I also
beg of God that He will bless thee with a son that may inherit my
kingdom after me ; for I am solitary, having none to be my heir,
and my age hath become great. I conjure thee, then, by Allah,
if thou love me, that thou return me a reply." And upon this,
the damsel hung her head toward the ground, meditating. Then
she raised her head, and smiled in the face of the king, whereat
it appeared to the king that lightning filled the private chamber;
and she said: "O magnanimous King, God hath answered thy
prayer; for I am about to bring thee a child, and the time is
almost come. And were it not that I knew this thing, I had not
spoken to thee one word." And when the king heard what she
said, his face brightened up with happiness, and he kissed her
hands by reason of the violence of his joy, and said: "Praise
be to God who hath favoured me with things that I desired ; the
first, thy speaking; and the second, thy information that thou
art about to bring me a child." Then the king arose and went
forth from her, and seated himself upon the throne of his king-
dom in a state of exceeding happiness; and he ordered the
vizier to give out to the poor and the needy a hundred thousand
pieces of gold as a thank-offering to God. So the vizier did
as the king had commanded him. And after that, the king
went in to the damsel, and embraced her, saying to her: "O my
mistress, wherefore hath been this silence, seeing that thou hast
been with me a w^hole year, awake and asleep, yet hast not
spoken to me, except on this day ?"

The damsel answered: "Hear, O King of the age, and know
that I am a poor person, a stranger, broken-hearted: I have
become separated from my mother, and my family, and my
brother." And when the king heard her words, he knew her
desire, and he replied: "As to thy saying that thou art poor, there
is no occasion for such an assertion; for all my kingdom and
possessions are at thy service, and as to thy saying, 'I have be-
come separated from my mother and my family and my brother'
— ^inform me in what place they are, and I will send to them,
and bring them to thee." So she said to him: "Know, O King,
that my name is Gulnare {Pomegranate Flower) of the Sea. My
father was one of the Kings of the Sea, and he died, and left to
us the kingdom; but while we were enjoying it, another of the
kings came upon us, and took the kingdom from our hands. I
have also a brother named Saleh, and my mother is of the women
of the sea; and I quarrelled with my brother, and swore that I
would throw myself into the hands of a man of the inhabitants of
the land. Accordingly I came forth from the sea, and sat upon
the shore of an island in the moonlight, and there passed by a
man who took me and sold me to this man from whom thou
tookest me, and he was an excellent, virtuous man, a person of
religion and fidelity and kindness. But had not thy heart loved
me, and hadst thou not preferred me above all thy wives, I had
not remained with thee one hour; for I should have cast myself
into the sea from this window, and gone to my mother and my
people. I was ashamed, however, to go to them ; for they would
imagine evil of me, and would not believe me, even though I
should swear to them, were I to tell them that a king had pur-
chased me with his money, and chosen me in preference to his
other wives and all that his right hand possessed. This is my
story, and peace be on thee!" And when he heard her words,
he thanked her, and kissed her between the eyes, and said to her:
"By Allah, O my mistress, and light of my eyes, I cannot endure
separation from thee for one hour ; and if thou quit me, I shall die
instantly. How then shall the affair he?" She answered: "O
my master, the time of the birth is near, and my family must
come." "And how," said the king, "do they walk in the sea
without being wetted.^" She answered: "We walk in the sea
as ye walk upon the land, through the influence of the names
engraved upon the seal of Solomon, the son of David, upon both
of whom be peace! But, O King, when my family and my
brethren come, I will inform them that thou boughtest me with
thy money, and hast treated me with beneficence, and it will be
meet that thou confirm my assertion to them. They will also
see thy state with their eyes, and will know that thou art a king,
the son of a king." And thereupon the king said: "O my
mistress, do what seemeth fit to thee, and what thou wishest; for
I will comply with thy desire in all that thou wilt do." And the
damsel said: "Know, O King of the age, that we walk in the
sea with our eyes open, and see what is in it, and we see the sun,
and the moon, and the stars, and the sky as on the face of the
earth, and this hurteth us not. Know also, that in the sea are
many peoples and various forms of all the kinds that are on the
land; and know, moreover, that all that is on the land, in com-
parison with what is in the sea, is a very small matter." And
the king wondered at her words.

Then the damsel took a bit of aloes-wood and, having lighted
a fire in a perfuming- vessel, threw into it that bit, and she pro-
ceeded to speak words which no one understood; whereupon a
great smoke arose, while the king looked on. After this, she
said to the king: *'0 my lord, arise and conceal thyself in a
closet, that I may shew thee my brother and my mother and my
family without their seeing thee; for I desire to bring them, and
thou shalt see in this place, at this time, a wonder, and shalt
marvel at the various shapes and strange forms that God hath
created." So the king arose immediately, and entered a closet,
and looked to see what she would do. And she proceeded to
burn perfume and repeat spells until the sea foamed and was
agitated, and there came forth from it a young man of comely
form, of beautiful countenance, like the moon at the full, with
shining forehead, and red cheeks, and hair resembling pearls and

And she proceeded, to burn 'perjiiTftie and repeat spells until tJu:
sea foamed and was agitated
jewels; he was, of all the creation, the most like to his sister, and
the tongue of the case itself seemed to recite in his praise these
verses : —

The moon becometh perfect once in each month; but the loveHness of thy face

is perfect every day.
Its abode is in the heart of one sign at a time; but thine abode is in all hearts
at once.

Afterward, there came forth from the sea a grizzly-haired old
woman, and with her five damsels, resembling moons and bear-
ing a likeness to the damsel whose name was Gulnare. Then
the king saw the young man and the old w oman and the damsels
walk upon the surface of the water until they came to Gulnare;
and when they drew near to the window, and she beheld them,
she rose to them and met them with joy. On their seeing her,
they knew her, and they went in to her and embraced her, weep-
ing violently; and they said to her: "O Gulnare, how is it that
thou leavest us for four years, and we know not the place in
which thou art? By x\llah, we had no delight in food nor in
drink a single day, weeping night and day on account of the
excess of our longing to see thee." Then the damsel began to
kiss the hand of her brother, and the hand of her mother, and so
also the hands of the daughters of her uncle, and they sat with
her awhile, asking her respecting her state, and the things that
had happened to her, and her present condition.

So she said to them: "Know ye, that when I quitted you, and
came forth from the sea, I sat upon the shore of an island, and a
man took me, and sold me to a merchant, and the merchant
brought me to this city, and sold me to its king for ten thousand
pieces of gold. Then he treated me with attention, and forsook
all his favourites for my sake, and was diverted by his regard for
me from everything that he possessed and what was in his city."

And when her brother heard her words, he said: "Praise be to
God who hath reunited us ! But it Is my desire, O my sister, that
thou wouldst arise and go with us to our country and our fam-
ily.'* So when the king heard the words of her brother, his
reason fled In consequence of his fear lest the damsel should ac-
cept the proposal of her kindred, and he could not prevent her,
though he was Inflamed with love of her; wherefore he became
perplexed In violent fear of her separation. But as to the damsel
Gulnare, on hearing the words of her brother she said: "By
Allah, O my brother, the man who purchased me Is the king of
this city, and he Is a great king, and a man of wisdom, generous,
of the utmost liberality. He hath treated me with honour, and
he is a person of kindness, and of great wealth, but hath no male
child nor a female. He hath shewn me favour too, and acted well
to me in every respect; and from the day when I came to him to
the present time, I have not heard from him a word to grieve my
heart; but he hath not ceased to treat me with courtesy, and I
am living with him In the most perfect of enjoyments. More-
over, If I quitted him, he would perish: for he can never endure
my separation even for a single hour. I also. If I quitted him,
should die of my love for him in consequence of his kindness to
me during the period of my residence with him; for If my father
w^ere living, my condition with him would not be like my con-
dition with this great, glorious king. God (whose name be
exalted!) afflicted me not, but compensated me well; and as the
king hath not a male child nor a female, I beg God to bless me
with a son that may inherit of this great king these palaces and
possessions." And when her brother, and the daughters of her
uncle, heard her words, their eyes became cheerful thereat, and
they said to her: "O Gulnare, thou art acquainted with our af-
fection for thee, and thou art assured that thou art the dearest of
all persons to us, and art certain that we desire for thee comfort,
without trouble or toil. Therefore if thou be not in a state of
comfort, arise and accompany us to our country and our family ;
but if thou be comfortable here, in honour and happiness, this is
our desire and wish." And Gulnare replied: **By Allah, I am
in a state of the utmost enjoyment, in honour and desirable
happiness." So when the king heard these words from her, he
rejoiced, and he thanked her for them ; his love for her penetrated
to his heart's core, and he knew that she loved him as he loved
her, and that she desired to remain with him to see his child which
she was to bring to him.

Then the damsel Gulnare of the Sea gave orders to the female
slaves to bring forward viands of all kinds ; and Gulnare herself
was the person who superintended the preparation of the viands
in the kitchen. So the female slaves brought to them the viands,
and the sweetmeats, and the fruits; and she ate with her family.
But afterward they said to her: *'0 Gulnare, thy master is a
man who is a stranger to us, and we have entered his abode w ith-
out his permission, and thou praisest to us his excellence, and hast
also brought to us his food, and we have eaten, but have not seen
him, nor hath he seen us, nor come into our presence, nor eaten
with us, that the bond of bread and salt might be established
between us." And they all desisted from eating, and were en-
raged at her, and fire began to issue from their mouths as from
cressets. So when the king beheld this, his reason fled, in con-
sequence of the violence of his fear of them. Then Gulnare
rose to them, and soothed their hearts; after which she walked
along until she entered the closet in which was the king her
master; and she said to him: "O my master, didst thou see, and
didst thou hear my thanks to thee, and my praise of thee in the
presence of my family; and didst thou hear what they said to
me, that they desired to take me with them to our family and our
country?" The king answered her: "I heard and saw. May
God recompense thee! By Allah, I knew not the extent of the
love that thou feelest for me until this blessed hour." She re-
plied: "O my master, is the recompense of beneficence aught
but beneficence .^ How then could my heart be happy to quit
thee, and to depart from thee ? Now I desire of thy goodness
that thou come and salute my family, that they may see thee, and
that pleasure and mutual friendship may ensue. For know, O
King, that my brother and my mother and the daughters of my
uncle have conceived a great love for thee in consequence of my
praising thee to them, and they have said, 'We will not depart
from thee to our country until we have an interview with the
king, and salute him.' " And the king said to her: "I hear and
obey; for this is what I desire." He then rose from his place,
and went to them, and saluted them with the best salutation;
and they hastened to rise to him; they met him in the most
polite manner, and he sat with them in the pavilion, ate with
them at the table, and remained with them for a period of thirty
days. Then they desired to return to their country and abode.
So they took leave of the king and Queen Gulnare of the Sea,
and departed from them, after the king had treated them wuth
the utmost honour.

After this, Gulnare gave birth to a boy, resembling the
moon at the full, whereat the king experienced the utmost
happiness, because he had not before been blessed with a son
nor a daughter during his life. They continued the rejoicings,
and the decoration of the city, for a period of seven days, in the
utmost happiness and enjoyment; and on the seventh day, the
mother of Gulnare, and her brother, and the daughters of her
uncle, all came, when they knew that she had given birth to her
child. The king met them, rejoicing at their arrival, and said
to them: "I said that I would not name my son until ye should
come, and that ye should name him according to your knowledge.'*
And they named him Bedr Basim (Smiling Full Moon), all of
them agreeing as to this name. They then presented the boy
to his maternal uncle, Saleh, who took him upon his hands, and,
rising with him from among them, walked about the palace to
the right and left; after which he went forth with him from the
palace, descended with him to the sea, and walked on until he
became concealed from the eye of the king. So when the king
saw that he had taken his son, and disappeared from him at the
bottom of the sea, he despaired of him, and began to weep and
wail. But Gulnare, seeing him in this state, said to him, "O
King of the age, fear not nor grieve for thy son; for I love my
child more than thou, and my child is with my brother ; therefore
fear not his being drowned. If my brother knew that any injury
would betide the little one, he had not done what he hath done;
and presently he will bring thee thy son safe, if it be the will of
God, whose name be exalted!" And but a short time had
elapsed when the sea was agitated, and the uncle of the little one
came forth from it, having with him the king's son safe, and he
flew from the sea until he came to them, with the little one in his
arms, silent, and his face resembling the moon in the night of its
fulness. Then the uncle of the little one looked toward the
king, and said to him: ''Perhaps thou fearedst some injury to
thy son when I descended into the sea, having him with me."
So he replied: "Yes, O my master, I feared for him, and I did
not imagine that he would ever come forth from it safe." And
Saleh said to him: *'0 King of the Land, we applied to his eyes
a lotion that we know, and repeated over him the names en-
graved upon the seal of Solomon, the son of David; for when a
child is born among us, we do to him as I have told thee. Fear
not therefore, on his account, drowning, nor suffocation, nor all
the seas if he descend into them. Like as ye walk upon the
land, we walk in the sea."

He then took forth from his pocket a case, written upon, and
sealed; and he broke its seal, and scattered its contents, where-
upon there fell from it strung jewels, consisting of all kinds of
jacinths and other gems, together with three hundred oblong
emeralds, and three hundred oblong large jewels, of the size of
the eggs of the ostrich, the light of which was more resplendent
than the light of the sun and the moon. And he said : '* O King
of the age, these jewels and jacinths are a present from me unto
thee ; for w^e never brought thee a present, because we knew not
the place of Gulnare's abode. So when we saw thee to have
become united to her, and that we all had become one, we
brought thee this present; and after every period of a few days,
we will bring thee the like of it. For these jewels and jacinths
with us are more plentiful than the gravel upon the land, and we
know the excellent among them, and the bad, and the places
where they are found, and they are easy of access to us." — And
when the king looked at those jewels, his reason was confounded
and his mind was bewildered, and he said: "By Allah, one of
these jewels is worth my kingdom!" Then the king thanked
Saleh of the Sea for his generosity, and looking toward the
Queen Gulnare said to her: "I am abashed at thy brother; for
he hath shewn favour to me, and presented me with this magnifi-
cent present, which the people of the earth would fail to procure."
So Gulnare thanked her brother for that which he had done;
but her brother said: "O King of the age, to thank thee hath
been incumbent on us ; for thou hast treated my sister with benefi-
cence, and we have entered thine abode, and eaten of thy pro-
vision." Then Saleh said: "If we stood serving thee,0 King of
the age, a thousand years, regarding nothing else, we could not
requite thee, and our doing so would be but a small thing in com-
parison with thy desert." And Saleh remained with the king, he
and his mother and the daughters of his uncle, forty days; after
which he arose and kissed the ground before the king, the
husband of his sister. So the king said to him: "What dost
thou desire, O Saleh ?" And he answered: "O King of the age,
we desire of thy goodness that thou wouldst give us permission
to depart; for we have become desirous of seeing again our
family and our country and our relations and our homes. We
wdll not, however, relinquish the service of thee, nor that of my
sister nor the son of my sister; and by Allah, O King of the age,
to quit you is not pleasant to my heart; but how can we act,
when we have been reared in the sea, and the land is not agree-
able to us.?" So when the king heard his words, he rose upon
his feet, and bade farewell to Saleh of the Sea and his mother
and the daughters of his uncle, and they wept together on ac-
count of the separation. Then they said to the king: "We will
never relinquish you, but after every period of a few days we will
visit you." And after this, they flew toward the sea, and de-
scended into it, and disappeared.

The king treated Gulnare with beneficence, and honoured
her exceedingly, and the little one grew up well; and his maternal
uncle, with his grandmother and the daughters of his uncle, after
every period of a few days used to come to the residence of the
king, and to remain with him a month, and then return to
their places. The boy ceased not to increase in beauty and
loveliness until his age became fifteen years; and he was incom-
parable in his perfect beauty, and his stature and his justness of
form. He had learned writing and reading, and history and
grammar and philology, and archery; and he learned to play
with the spear; and he also learned horsemanship, and all that
the sons of the kings required. There was not one of the chil-
dren of the inhabitants of the city, men and women, that talked not
of the charms of that young man ; for he was of surpassing love-
liness and perfection; and the king loved him greatly. Then
the king summoned the vizier and the emeers, and the lords of
the empire, and the great men of the kingdom, and made them
swear by binding oaths that they would make Bedr Basim king
over them after his father; so they swore to him by binding
oaths, and rejoiced thereat; and the king himself was beneficent
to the people, courteous in speech and of auspicious aspect.
And on the following day, the king mounted, together with the
lords of the empire and all the emeers, and all the soldiers, and
they ceased not to proceed until they arrived at the vestibule of
the palace; the king's son riding. Thereupon he alighted, and
his father embraced him, he and the emeers, and they seated him
upon the throne of the kingdom, while his father stood, as also
did the emeers, before him. Then Bedr Basim judged the
people, displaced the tyrannical and invested the just, and con-
tinued to give judgment until near midday, when he rose from
the throne of the kingdom, and went in to his mother, Gulnare
of the Sea, having upon his head the crown, and resembling the
moon. So when his mother saw him, and the king before him,
she rose to him and kissed him, and congratulated him on his
elevation to the dignity of sultan; and she offered up a prayer
in favour of him and his father for length of life, and victory over
their enemies. He then sat with his mother and rested; and
when the time of afternoon-prayers arrived, he rode with the
emeers before him until he came to the horse-course, where
he played with arms till the time of nightfall, together with his
father and the lords of his empire ; after which he returned to the
palace, with all the people before him. Every day he used to
ride to the horse-course; and when he returned, he sat to judge
the people, and administered justice between the emeer and the
poor man. He ceased not to do thus for a whole year ; and after
that, he used to ride to the chase, and go about through the cities
and provinces that were under his rule making proclamation of
safety and security, and doing as do the kings; and he was in-
comparable among the people of his age in glory and courage,
and in justice to the people.

Now it came to pass that the old king, the father of Bedr
Basim, fell sick one day, whereupon his heart throbbed, and he
felt that he was about to be removed to the mansion of eternity.
Then his malady increased so that he was at the point of death.
He therefore summoned his son, and charged him to take care of
his subjects and his mother and all the lords of his empire and all
the dependants. He also made them swear, and covenanted
with them a second time, that they would obey his son; and he
confided in their oaths. And after this he remained a few days,
and was admitted to the mercy of God, whose name be exalted!
His son Bedr Basim, and his wife Gulnare and the emeers and
viziers and the lords of the empire, mourned over him ; and they
made for him a tomb, and buried him in it, and continued the
ceremonies of mourning for him a whole month. Saleh, the
brother of Gulnare, and her mother, and the daughters of her
uncle, also came, and consoled them for the loss of the king;
and they said: *'0 Gulnare, if the king hath died, he hath left
this ingenuous youth, and he who hath left such as he is hath not
died. This is he who hath not an equal, the crushing lion, and
the splendid moon." Then the lords of the empire, and the
grandees, went in to the King Bedr Basim, and said to him: "O
King, there is no harm in mourning for the king; but mourning
becometh not any save women; therefore trouble not thy heart
and ours by mourning for thy father; for he hath died and left
thee, and he who hath left such as thou art hath not died." They
proceeded to address him with soft words, and to console him,
and after that they conducted him into the bath; and when he
came forth from the bath, he put on a magnificent suit woven of
gold, adorned with jewels and jacinths, and he put the royal
crown upon his head, seated himself upon the throne of his king-
dom, and performed the affairs of the people, deciding equitably
between the strong and the weak, and exacting for the poor man
his due from the emeer; wherefore the people loved him exceed-
ingly. Thus he continued to do for the space of a whole year;
and after every short period, his family of the sea visited him;
so his life was pleasant, and his eye was cheerful : and he ceased
not to live in this state until he was visited by the terminator of
delights and the separator of companions. This is the end of
their story. The mercy of God be on them all !