The Evil Wizard

Once upon a time, there was a king. Although he was married, he had no children. One day, he summoned a Maghrebi man, who said:

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

The king replied:

- Very well.

Then the Maghrebi man gave him two candies—one green and one 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 named Clever Muhammad. He was intelligent, skilled in the sciences, and had a beautiful voice.

Later, the queen gave birth to a second son, clumsy and dull; he was named Clever Ali. Then a third son was born, who was completely foolish.

Ten years later, the Maghrebi man came to the king and said:

- Give me the promised son.

The king went to his wife:

- The Maghrebi man has come for our firstborn.

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

- Very well, replied the king.

He called Ali and handed him over to the Maghrebi man. The man took the boy and set off on his journey. They walked along a mountain road until noon; then the Maghrebi man 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 man 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 man reached out and pointed to Clever Muhammad.

They walked for half a day, and the Maghrebi man 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 man.

He stomped his foot, and they descended underground together.

This Maghrebi man was an evil sorcerer. After descending underground, he brought the boy to a palace in the middle of a garden, brought him a book, and said:

- Read!

Clever Muhammad took the book but could not understand a single word. The Maghrebi man 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 could not decipher a single word. Then he thought: "Tomorrow I will die; I might as well take a walk in the garden before my death."

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 learned it, and tomorrow I will die.

- I will help you, said the girl, but when the Maghrebi man comes to you, say that 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 man came to Clever Muhammad and asked:

- Did you memorize the book?

- I couldn’t understand a single word, replied the youth.

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

- I’ll give you another thirty days; if you don’t memorize the book by then, I’ll cut off your head.

- Very well, replied Muhammad.

When the Maghrebi man 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 walk through the garden. There, they suddenly found three lost pages from the book of sorcery, which the Maghrebi man had been searching for in vain for forty years. Clever Muhammad read them, and he and the girl managed 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’ll 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’ll give you a lamb; sell it, but don’t sell the rope tied around it.

His mother took the lamb and went to the market. A coffeehouse owner, a merchant of medicines, approached her.

- Woman, are you selling the lamb?

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

- Very well. Will you sell it for three silver coins?

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

The merchant, pleased, took the lamb.

- I’ll give it as a gift to the king, he said.

And the people in the coffeehouse approved of his words:

- That’s right, a gift worthy of a king.

The merchant brought a bowl of water to give the lamb a drink. The lamb put its front legs in the bowl. The merchant struck it. The lamb lifted its hind legs, plunged into the water—and disappeared. The merchant threw up his hands:

- Ah! The lamb drowned in the bowl!

The people thought the merchant had gone mad:

- He should be sent to the madhouse!

Meanwhile, the Maghrebi man 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’s on the seventh earth, I’ll bring him back.

And the Maghrebi man went to the city where Clever Muhammad lived. There, he heard people talking about the lamb that had drowned in the bowl. "This must be the work of Clever Muhammad," thought the Maghrebi man. "I must stay here and wait for him."

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

- I’ll give you a camel; sell it at the market, but don’t sell the rope tied to it, even if they offer you four thousand gold coins.

His mother turned and saw a camel before her. She took it by the rope, brought it to the market, and entrusted it to a broker. The Maghrebi man was standing in the market and saw everything.

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

- I need that rope. Buy the camel for me, if Allah wills, for twenty thousand gold coins. I’ll take only the rope, and you can keep 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.

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

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

Clever Muhammad’s mother, delighted at the prospect of such wealth, agreed.

The Maghrebi man took the camel, gave it to the broker, and pulled out the 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 high into the sky. Then the Maghrebi man turned into a hawk and chased after him. They flew like this for two days and two nights. The Maghrebi man 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 man went to the sultan:

- I ask for one pomegranate. A person close to me is ill and has asked for pomegranate fruit. I’ve been told they can only be found in your garden.

- Is it the season for pomegranates? asked the sultan.

The Maghrebi man replied:

- O Sultan! If you don’t find even one 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 the season for pomegranates? the gardener wondered.

- Your head is forfeit, said the sultan to the Maghrebi man.

But he objected:

- Order the gardener to search the garden and look 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 gave it to the sultan.

The sultan looked at the beautiful fruit and hesitated to give it away. He called his vizier:

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

- But if there had been no pomegranate in the garden, wouldn’t you have beheaded the Maghrebi man? asked the vizier.

- Yes, I would have, replied the sultan.

- Then the pomegranate is rightfully his, said the vizier.

And the sultan gave the pomegranate to the Maghrebi man.

But as soon as the Maghrebi man took it, the pomegranate split open, and all the seeds scattered in different directions. The Maghrebi man 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 man kept pecking at the seeds until he had eaten them all. Finally, he saw the last seed, in which Muhammad’s life resided, 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.

Then 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, decided the sultan.

He ordered a marriage contract to be drawn up, and everyone celebrated for forty days.

And Clever Muhammad and the sultan’s daughter lived happily, raising sons and daughters.

More fairy tales

• The Hare Who Defeated the Whale and the Elephant
• Who is Stronger
• How the Fox Outsmarted the Lion
• 6. Sinbad the Sailor (The Sixth Voyage)
• The Tale of Dishonest Hob