The Tale of the Ebony Horse

In ancient times, there lived a great king. He had three daughters, as radiant as full moons, and a son, as agile as a gazelle and as beautiful as a summer morning.

One day, three strangers arrived at the royal court. One carried a golden peacock, another a copper trumpet, and the third had a horse made of ivory and ebony.

"What are these things?" asked the king.

"Whoever possesses the golden peacock," replied the first stranger, "will always know the time. As soon as an hour passes, whether day or night, the bird flaps its wings and cries out."

"Whoever possesses the copper trumpet," said the second, "need fear nothing. The enemy will still be far away, but the trumpet will sound by itself and warn everyone of danger."

And the third stranger said:

"Whoever possesses the ebony horse can travel to any land he desires."

"I won't believe you until I test these things myself," replied the king.

As noon approached and the sun stood directly overhead, the peacock flapped its wings and cried out. At that very moment, a petitioner entered the palace gates. Suddenly, without warning, the trumpet sounded. The king ordered the newcomer to be searched, and the servants found a sword hidden beneath his clothes. The man confessed that he had intended to kill the king.

"These are very useful things," the king said with delight. "What do you want in exchange for them?"

"Give me your daughter in marriage," requested the first stranger.

"I, too, wish to marry a princess," said the second.

Without hesitation, the king took the peacock and the trumpet from them and gave them his daughters in marriage.

Then the third stranger, the owner of the ebony horse, approached the king.

"O sovereign," he said with a bow, "take the horse and give me the third princess in marriage."

"Not so fast," said the king. "We haven't tested your horse yet." At that moment, the king's son approached and said to his father:

"Allow me to mount this horse and test it."

"Test it as you wish," replied the king.

The prince jumped onto the horse, spurred it, and tugged at the reins, but the horse stood as if rooted to the spot.

"Have you lost your mind, wretch?!" the king shouted at the stranger. "How dare you deceive the sovereign? Get out of here with your horse, or I'll have you thrown into the dungeon."

But the stranger remained unperturbed. He approached the prince and showed him a small ivory button on the right side of the horse's neck.

"Press this button," he told the prince.

The prince pressed the button, and suddenly the horse rose into the clouds and flew faster than the wind. It climbed higher and higher until the prince could no longer see the ground. His head began to spin, and he had to grip the horse's neck with both hands to keep from falling. The prince began to regret mounting the horse and silently bid farewell to life.

But then he noticed that the horse had an identical button on the left side of its neck. The prince pressed it, and the horse slowed down and began to descend. He pressed the right button again, and the horse shot upward like an arrow, racing through the clouds like a whirlwind. The prince rejoiced, realizing he had discovered the secret of the horse and could now control it. Excited by the swift ride on the magical steed, the prince began to rise and fall, experiencing a thrill of flight unlike anything any mortal had ever known.

When the prince grew tired, he pressed the left button and began to descend. He descended all day until he finally saw the ground.

It was a foreign land, with lakes and fast-flowing streams, green forests teeming with game, and in the heart of the country stood a marvelous city with white palaces and cypress groves.
The prince descended lower and lower and finally steered his horse toward a palace built of golden bricks. The palace stood far from the city amidst rose gardens. The prince landed on the roof of the palace and dismounted. He was surprised by the profound silence, as if everything had died out. No noise could be heard, nothing disturbed the stillness. The prince decided to spend the night there and return home in the morning. He settled comfortably and began to watch as the night enveloped the treetops.

He sat like this, leaning against the wooden horse's legs, and gazed downward. Suddenly, he noticed a light in the rose garden. It seemed to the prince that a star had descended into the garden. It grew closer, larger, and then split into ten lights. At that moment, the prince saw beautiful maidens in silver veils holding lamps in their hands.

They surrounded a girl so beautiful that the prince's heart stopped the moment he laid eyes on her. The maidens entered the palace, and immediately the windows lit up with a bright glow. Beautiful music began to play, and the air was filled with the wonderful scent of incense and ambergris.

The prince could not restrain himself. He unwound his turban and climbed down it to the window from which the brightest light poured. Through the window, he entered the room where the maidens were sitting. They scattered with screams, but the most beautiful one remained motionless, as if enchanted. She could not take her eyes off the prince's face. Love unexpectedly blossomed in their hearts.

They told each other about themselves. The beauty revealed to the prince that she was the king's daughter. The king had built this palace for her so she could have a place to amuse herself when she grew bored in her father's house.

Meanwhile, the princess's attendants ran back to the palace, woke the king, and cried out:

"King, help! An evil spirit has flown through the window to the princess and will not let her go!"

The king did not hesitate. He fastened his sword to his belt and rushed to the princess's palace.

He burst into her room, expecting to find his weeping daughter in the clutches of a terrible jinn. Instead, he found her engaged in conversation with a handsome young man. The girl was smiling at him joyfully. The king was seized with rage.

He lunged at the stranger with his sword drawn, but the prince also drew his sword. The king hesitated to engage in a duel with the agile, strong youth and lowered his weapon.

"Are you a man or a jinn?" he shouted.

"I am a man, just like you," the young man replied. "I am the son of a king and ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. If you refuse, I will take her myself."

The king was astonished by these bold words. He entered the princess's room, bowed deeply, and said:

"Just try," he exclaimed. "My army stands in the city."

"I will defeat all your warriors."

The prince did not expect the king to take him at his word.

"Very well," said the king. "I will give you my daughter in marriage only if you defeat forty thousand horsemen in battle."

The prince was ashamed to admit to the princess that this was beyond his strength, so he told the king he would face his army the next day. The king offered the prince a place to sleep in his palace, and the three of them headed there. Each of them awaited the morning in their own way. That morning would decide whether the young foreigner would become the king's son-in-law.

The prince fell asleep instantly, exhausted from his swift flight through the clouds.

The king tossed and turned on his bed for a long time before falling asleep, fearing his warriors might kill the prince, and he would lose a dear son-in-law. The princess did not sleep a wink all night, so terrified was she for her beloved.

As soon as the sun rose, forty thousand horsemen lined up in the field outside the city, ready for battle. The king ordered his best horse from the royal stables to be brought for the prince, but the prince politely declined, saying he would only ride his own horse.

"Where is your horse?" asked the king.

"On the roof of the princess's palace," replied the prince.

The king thought the prince was mocking him: how could a horse be on the roof? But the prince insisted, and the king had no choice but to send his servants to fetch the horse from the roof. Soon, two strong servants returned with the horse. It was so beautiful that the king and his courtiers were struck dumb with amazement. But they were even more astonished when they saw that the horse was made of wood.

"Well, you won't defeat my army on this horse," said the king.
The prince did not utter a word. He leaped onto the magic horse, pressed the button on its right side, and the horse shot up into the air like an arrow. Before the king and his warriors could even comprehend what had happened, the horse and the prince were already so high up that they appeared as a tiny swallow in the vast blue sky.

They waited and waited, but the rider on the magic horse did not return. The king went to the palace and told the princess what had happened. The princess burst into tears; she told her father that she could not live without her beloved and retreated to the palace made of golden bricks. There, she locked herself away, refusing to eat or sleep, consumed by grief for her prince. Her father tried to persuade her to forget the young foreigner.

"After all, he is not a prince but a sorcerer. Who else could fly through the air?" the king said.

But no matter how much he pleaded or reasoned, the princess remained inconsolable and fell gravely ill from sorrow.

Meanwhile, the prince on the magic horse had ascended so high that he lost sight of the earth. He reveled in the flight but still yearned for the beautiful princess. However, the young man decided that he would only return to her after reuniting with his father, who was surely sleepless with worry, searching for his son across the land. The prince flew and flew until he saw the towers of his hometown below. He landed on the roof of the royal palace, dismounted, and ran straight to his father.

Everyone rejoiced when they saw that the prince was alive and well! He told his father how he had learned to control the horse, how he had ended up in a distant foreign land, and how he had fallen in love with the princess there. Then he asked what had become of the owner of the magic horse, the foreigner who had wanted to marry the king's daughter as a reward.

"That scoundrel was thrown into prison because you disappeared due to his fault," the king said.

"You threw him into a dungeon for giving us such a marvelous thing?" the prince exclaimed. "He deserves to have the entire court bow before him!"

The king immediately ordered the foreigner to be released from prison and granted him the highest court title.

The foreigner politely thanked him for the honor, but deep down, he harbored resentment. He had wanted to marry the princess but had been denied. However, the sorcerer did not reveal his true feelings and waited for an opportunity to seek revenge.

Soon, the prince grew weary of his home. He found no peace and longed for the princess from the distant foreign land. In vain, the king begged his son not to put himself in danger, but the prince would not listen. One day, he leaped onto the ebony horse and flew away. He flew and flew until he arrived in that foreign land again. The prince landed on the roof of the palace made of golden bricks, which stood amidst rose gardens.

The princess lay in her room, pale and emaciated, surrounded by silence. But then someone drew back the curtain, and her beloved entered the room. All her illness seemed to vanish in an instant. Beaming, she jumped from her bed and threw her arms around the prince.

"Would you like to come with me to my kingdom?" the prince asked. The girl nodded, and before the startled maids could react, the prince picked her up and carried her to the palace roof. There, he placed her on the magic horse, mounted it himself, and pressed the button on the right side. Soon, they were flying above the clouds, clinging to each other, intoxicated by their reunion and enchanted by the magical flight.

Down below, in the palace of golden bricks, chaos erupted. The servants called for the king, but it was too late. The king tore at his hair and mourned his lost daughter, thinking he would never see her again.

Meanwhile, the prince and princess flew on and on, not even remembering the old king. Finally, they found themselves above the city ruled by the prince's father and descended into one of the royal gardens. The prince hid the princess in a gazelle surrounded by blooming lilies, narcissi, and fragrant jasmine. He left the wooden horse nearby and went to his father.

Everyone rejoiced at the prince's return, and the king nearly lost his mind with joy. The prince told him that he had brought a beautiful bride and asked for his father's permission to marry her. The king thought that if the prince married, he would finally give up his reckless flights through the air. So he immediately agreed to celebrate the wedding.

The townspeople began decorating the city, and preparations for a lavish wedding were underway.

The prince sent singers and maidens with harps to the garden where the princess was hidden. He ordered a thousand nightingales to be released there to ease her wait. Meanwhile, the foreigner, the owner of the magic horse, seethed with rage and nearly choked on his anger when he saw the festive preparations. To avoid witnessing it all, he wandered through the royal gardens. By chance, he came upon the gazelle surrounded by jasmine and narcissi. There, he noticed his horse. The sage peered into the gazelle and saw a girl of rare beauty. The foreigner immediately guessed that this was the prince's bride and decided that now he could take revenge for the insult and the loss of his horse.

He approached the princess, bowed deeply, and said:

"The prince, my master, sent me here to take you to a safer place. You are in danger here."

The princess, glancing at his hideous face, grew frightened. The sage noticed this at once and said:

"The prince is very jealous, which is why he sent me, the ugliest of his friends, to fetch you. He didn't want you to be swayed by anyone's looks."

The princess smiled, pleased that the prince cared so much for her. She extended her hand to the ugly foreigner and left the gazelle with him. The sage led the girl to the magic horse and said:

"Mount the horse. The prince wanted you to ride it."

The princess climbed onto the horse, the sage sat behind her, pressed the button on the right side, and the horse shot into the air so swiftly that it vanished from sight in an instant.

After some time, the princess, alarmed by how fast they were flying, asked...
— Are the royal gardens so vast that we must fly for so long? Here the hideous monster laughed maliciously and said to the princess:

— Know then that I am a great sorcerer. I made this horse myself and took you away to avenge myself on the prince.

The sorcerer began to boast of his power.

— If I wish, he said, all the stars will fall upon my head like wasps on a ripe plum.

This he invented, but the princess did not care: upon hearing his first words, she fainted.

Meanwhile, a grand procession headed by the prince made its way to the garden to escort the princess to the royal palace, where her wedding attire awaited. The prince was very surprised to hear no music or nightingale songs. He left his retinue and ran to the pavilion where the princess had been hidden. But the pavilion was empty. In a state of horror, he ran out into the garden and only then noticed that the ebony horse had also disappeared. The prince called for the princess, searched through the jasmine bushes, but there was no trace of her. Then one of the harpist maidens he had sent to the garden told him that a stranger had come for the princess and flown away with her on a marvelous horse. When the maiden described the man's appearance to the prince, he recognized him as the owner of the magical horse. The prince realized that the foreigner had avenged himself for the insult. Grief-stricken, he nearly lost his mind, cursing the sorcerer and his cruel fate, gazing upward in hopes of seeing the horse and princess in the clouds. But even if the prince had seen them, he could have done nothing.

The princess was far, far away. In the evening, the foreigner directed the horse to the ground, and they landed on a green meadow through which a river flowed. Here he decided to rest. It so happened that at that very moment, the king of that country was returning from a hunt. He noticed the old man and the girl and ordered his retinue to stop. The king began to inquire who they were and how they had come to his land.

— I can guess by your appearance and the retinue surrounding you that you are a king, said the sage. So forgive me and my sister for sitting on your meadow. We are very tired after a long journey.

— O king! He lies, exclaimed the princess. I am not his sister. He took me by force. Save me, O lord, and I will be grateful to you until death. The king immediately ordered the hideous sorcerer to be bound and a litter prepared for the princess. Then he examined the ebony horse. He admired the exquisite craftsmanship and ivory patterns, but neither the hideous sage nor the princess revealed the secret of the magical horse. The king ordered the horse to be taken to the royal palace. He escorted the princess there and ordered the most beautiful chambers to be prepared for her. The evil sorcerer who had abducted the princess was thrown into prison by the king's servants.

It seemed the princess had escaped danger. But she had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The king fell passionately in love with her and would not let her leave the palace. Soon he told the girl he wished to marry her.

Meanwhile, the prince, her true betrothed, disguised in simple clothes, traveled from town to town, from country to country, asking everywhere about the hideous old man, the beautiful girl, and the ebony horse; but no one could tell him anything about them. He wandered for a long time, and many months passed until finally, fortune smiled upon him. In one of the cities, merchants at the market spoke of how the king of a neighboring country, returning from a hunt, had noticed a beautiful girl on a meadow. He had freed her from the clutches of an old monster and had fallen passionately in love with her. There was nothing surprising in that. But the wooden horse—truly a wonder of wonders: adorned with ivory, it was indistinguishable from a living one.

As soon as the prince heard this, his heart leaped with joy, and he immediately set off for the neighboring country. He walked all night, then a day and another night, and finally arrived at the royal capital. In the city, everyone was talking about the beautiful girl whom the king had madly fallen in love with. But people said the girl was out of her mind. The king had done everything to cure her, but nothing had worked.

The prince wasted no time and went straight to the royal palace, announcing himself as a skilled healer from a distant land who could cure any ailment. The king was delighted and told him how he had found the princess and how she now refused to eat, sleep, let anyone near her, tore expensive covers to shreds, and smashed wondrous mirrors and goblets to pieces.

The prince listened and said:

— Before I begin treating the princess, I must see the ebony horse.

The king ordered the horse to be brought to the courtyard, and the prince examined it carefully. When the young man saw that the horse was intact and that nothing had happened to it, and most importantly, both buttons were in place, he said to the king:

— Post a guard by this horse, and take me to the sick girl.

The king escorted him to the princess's room. The prince asked not to be disturbed and entered alone to see his bride. As soon as the girl looked at him, she instantly recognized her beloved in the disguised healer. Overjoyed, the princess nearly lost her mind. The prince told her what she must do for him to free her and returned to the king.

— O king, he said. The girl is already better, but for her to fully recover, I must recite one more spell. Order the horse to be brought to the meadow where you found the girl. And have your servants bring the princess there.

The king, overjoyed that the foreign healer would cure his bride, did everything the prince asked. The horse was already standing on the meadow outside the city, and the servants brought the princess there. The king himself, surrounded by courtiers, appeared and waited to see what the healer would do.

The prince seated the princess on the magical horse, sat behind her, and pressed the button on the horse's neck on the right side. And then something unexpected happened. Who would have thought that the wooden horse would soar into the air like a winged bird and rise to the clouds in an instant. By the time the frightened king recovered and ordered his warriors to draw their bows and shoot at the fugitives, the magical horse was already so high that it seemed like a tiny speck.

The prince and princess no longer thought of the poor, love-struck king and rejoiced that fate had reunited them. They flew over mountains and valleys until they finally reached the prince's homeland. There they held a grand wedding, attended by the princess's father and his retinue. He forgave them, seeing how much they loved each other, and decided that his daughter had married happily. Once again, the entire city was festively decorated. People feasted and celebrated for many nights in a row. The bright moon rejoiced at their happiness, peeking out from the heavenly windows, while below, the earth was covered with jasmine flowers.

After the wedding, the prince wanted to ride the magical horse. He searched for it everywhere but could not find it. The old king had ordered the horse to be broken so that his son could never ascend to the skies again. The prince regretted the loss of the ebony horse but soon forgot about it: even without the horse, the young man was happy. And when many years later he told his children about the magical horse, they did not believe him and thought it was a marvelous fairy tale.

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• The Black Mussel
• Who is Stronger
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