Clever Muhammad

Once upon a time, there was a king. Although he was married, he had no children. One day, a foreigner from the Maghreb (a resident of the Maghreb: the Maghreb is what Arabs call the countries of Northwest Africa) came to him and said:

- If I give you a remedy so that your wife can bear children, will you give me your firstborn?

The king replied:

- Alright.

Then the Maghrebi gave him two candies—one green and the other red—and said:

- You eat the green one, and let your wife eat the red one.

The king gave the red candy to his wife. She ate it, became pregnant, and gave birth to a boy whom they named Clever Muhammad. He was smart, talented in the sciences, and also had a beautiful voice.

Later, the queen gave birth to a second son, clumsy and not very bright; they named him Clever Ali. Then a third son was born, who was completely foolish.
Ten years later, the Maghrebi came to the king and said:

- Give me the promised son.

The king went to his wife:

- The Maghrebi has come for our firstborn.

- We will never give him up, said the mother. Let him take Ali instead.

- Alright, replied the king.

He called Ali and handed him over to the Maghrebi. The man took the boy and set off with him. They walked along a mountain road until noon; then the Maghrebi asked Ali:

- Aren't you hungry or thirsty?

- We've been walking for half a day. How could I not be hungry or thirsty? replied the boy.

The Maghrebi took him by the hand, brought him back to the king, and said:

- No, this is not the firstborn!

Then the king called all three sons. The Maghrebi stretched out his hand and pointed to Clever Muhammad. They walked for half a day, and the Maghrebi said to Muhammad:

- Aren't you hungry or thirsty?

- If you want to eat and drink, then so do I, replied the boy.

- Yes, you are my son! exclaimed the Maghrebi.

He stomped his foot, and they descended underground together with Clever Muhammad.
This Maghrebi was an evil sorcerer. After descending underground, he brought the boy to a palace standing in the middle of a garden, brought him a book, and said:

- Read!

Clever Muhammad took the book but couldn't understand a single word in it. The Maghrebi said to him:

- If you don't memorize this book in thirty days, I will cut off your head. Then he left him and went away. For twenty-nine days, Clever Muhammad sat over the book and couldn't make out a single word. Then he thought: "Tomorrow I will die; I'll go for a walk in the garden before I die."

He went out into the garden and saw a girl tied by her hair to a tree.

- Who tied you up? he asked.

- The Maghrebi sorcerer, replied the girl.

- Why?

- Because I memorized a book of sorcery.

Then Clever Muhammad untied the girl and said:

- He gave me a book too, to memorize in thirty days, but I haven't, and tomorrow I will die.

- I will help you, said the girl, but when the Maghrebi comes to you, tell him you couldn't learn anything. And she began to teach him from the book of sorcery, then said:

- Now tie me up again by my hair.

Clever Muhammad tied her up, and they parted ways.
At the end of the next day, the Maghrebi came to Clever Muhammad and asked:

- Did you memorize the book?

- I couldn't understand a single word, replied the young man.

Then the Maghrebi drew his knife, cut off Muhammad's right hand, and said:

- I give you another thirty days; if you don't memorize the book, I will cut off your head.

- Alright, replied Muhammad.

When the Maghrebi left, Clever Muhammad read three words from the book of sorcery, and his hand reattached itself. He went back to the girl, untied her, and they began to stroll through the garden. Suddenly, they found three lost pages from the book of sorcery that the Maghrebi had been searching for in vain for forty years. Clever Muhammad read them, and they were able to rise to the surface of the earth. Muhammad brought two horses, mounted one himself, and the girl mounted the other.

- You go to your parents, and I will go to mine, said Muhammad.

He arrived home and knocked on the door. His mother opened it, rejoiced, and they talked until morning. In the morning, he said to her:

- Mother! I will give you a lamb; sell it, but do not sell the rope that is tied to it.

His mother took the lamb and went to the market. A coffee shop owner, a hashish dealer, approached her:

- Woman, are you selling the lamb?

- Buy it, but I won't sell the rope, she replied.

- Alright. Will you sell it for a rial?

- May Allah open the gates of profit, the woman replied.

- Alright. For one and a half rials?

- Fine, may Allah grant you luck, the woman replied.

The hashish dealer, pleased, took the lamb.

- I'll take it as a gift to the king, he said. And the people sitting in the coffee shop approved:

- Right, this is a gift worthy of a king.

The hashish dealer brought a bowl of water to give the lamb a drink. The lamb put its front legs in the bowl. The dealer hit it. The lamb lifted its hind legs, dipped into the water—and disappeared.

The dealer threw up his hands:

- Ah! The lamb drowned in the bowl!

People thought the hashish dealer had gone mad:

- He needs to be sent to a madhouse!

Meanwhile, the Maghrebi went to where he had left Clever Muhammad. But he found neither him nor the girl and said:

- I swear by Allah! Even if he is on the seventh earth, I will bring him back.
And the Maghrebi headed to the city where Clever Muhammad lived. There, he heard people talking about the lamb that drowned in a bowl. "This must be the work of Clever Muhammad," thought the Maghrebi. "I need to stay here and wait for him."

The cunning Muhammad called his mother the next day and said to her:

- I will give you a camel; sell it at the market, but do not sell the lead rope, even if they offer you four thousand gold coins for it.

His mother turned around and saw a camel in front of her. She took it by the lead rope, brought it to the market, and entrusted it to a broker. The Maghrebi was standing at the market and saw everything.

When the camel was handed over, the Maghrebi approached the broker:

- I need this lead rope. Buy the camel for me, if Allah wills, for twenty thousand gold coins. I will take only the rope, and you can have the camel.

The broker went to Clever Muhammad's mother:

- Will you sell the camel for four thousand gold coins?

- May Allah open the gates of profit, she replied.

- Will you sell it for five thousand? asked the broker.

- Alright, may Allah grant you luck. But know that I cannot sell the lead rope with the camel.

- What do you need this piece of rope for? asked the broker. Take another thousand gold coins for it and sell it.

Clever Muhammad's mother was delighted at the prospect of such wealth and agreed. The Maghrebi took the camel, gave it to the broker, and pulled out the lead rope, putting it in his bag. He rode off into the steppe, rejoicing that Clever Muhammad was now in his hands.

But Clever Muhammad turned into a raven and flew up into the sky. The Maghrebi then turned into a hawk and chased after him. They flew like this for two days and two nights. The Maghrebi began to catch up with Clever Muhammad. But Muhammad saw a garden below, descended, and turned into a pomegranate on a tall tree.
This garden belonged to the sultan, the father of the girl Muhammad had freed. The Maghrebi went to the sultan:

- I ask for one pomegranate. A loved one of mine is ill and has asked for pomegranate fruit. I was told they can only be found in your garden.

- Is it even the season for pomegranates? asked the sultan.
The Maghrebi replied:

- O Sultan! If there is not a single pomegranate in your garden, let my head fall.

Then the sultan called the head gardener and asked:

- Is it true that you have pomegranates?

- O master! Is it even the season for pomegranates? the gardener exclaimed.

- You see, your head is forfeit, the sultan said to the Maghrebi.

But the Maghrebi objected:

- Order the gardener to search the garden and look for pomegranates on the trees.

At the sultan's command, the gardener went into the garden. On one of the trees, he saw a large pomegranate, cut it, brought it, and handed it to the sultan. The sultan looked at the beautiful fruit and hesitated whether to give it away. He called his vizier:

- I don't want to give this pomegranate to the Maghrebi.

- But if there had been no pomegranate in the garden, wouldn't you have cut off the Maghrebi's head? asked the vizier.

- Yes, I would have, replied the sultan.

- Then the pomegranate rightfully belongs to him, said the vizier.

And the sultan gave the pomegranate to the Maghrebi. But as soon as the Maghrebi took it, the pomegranate split open, and all the seeds scattered in different directions. The Maghrebi immediately turned into a rooster and began pecking at the seeds one by one. The sultan and the vizier watched in amazement.

Clever Muhammad hid in a seed that rolled under the leg of the throne. The Maghrebi continued pecking at the seeds until he had eaten them all. Finally, he saw the last seed, which contained Muhammad's life, and stretched out his neck to grab it, but the seed suddenly turned into a dagger. The dagger struck the rooster in the chest and split it in half. At that moment, Clever Muhammad returned to his original form and stood before the sultan.

- Tell me, what happened here? asked the sultan.

And Clever Muhammad told him the whole story from beginning to end and said:

- It was I who untied your daughter's hair and freed her.

The sultan called his daughter.

- My daughter, do you know this man? he asked.

The girl replied:

- Yes, this is Clever Muhammad, who untied my hair.

- If he is your savior, you must marry him, the sultan decided.

He ordered the marriage contract to be drawn up, and everyone celebrated for forty days. Clever Muhammad and the sultan's daughter lived happily and raised sons and daughters.

More fairy tales

• The Hare Who Defeated the Whale and the Elephant
• The Tale of Ja'far and His Brothers
• The Bedouin and the Arab
• Bread and Gold
• The Cat and the Mouse