天方夜谭英文故事：The Dwarf with a Long Beard

Once upon a time in Arabia there ruled a Sultan. He had a son. His name was Arfan. One of the courtiers was a witch. She hated the prince Arfan. So she poisoned the mind of the Sultan against his son. She said, "You will be over powered by your son prince Arfan. He may exile you my lord". 

 

The Sultan didn’t care about her words first. But slowly his mind was worrying about the words of the courtier. So he decided¹ to test the loyalty² of his son Arfan. He wanted to test him directly. So he sought the advice of the lady courtier. She said, “My lord, ask your son to do impossible things. Surely he will leave the kingdom." 

 

The very next morning the Sultan asked his son, prince Arfan “You go anywhere and get a small tent to be held on my palm. At the same time it should shelter our entire army in it." 

 

The prince was stunned³ for a while “How can I get a tent so small to hold an entire army?" He thought. 

 

Suddenly the prince was reminded of his wife Fathima. So he said, “Yes my lord I will try." 

 

He went to his wife Fathima and told her what had happened in the court. Fathima smiled at the prince and said, “Prince don’t worry about the tent. You will get it the next morning". 

 

The prince didn’t sleep all the night. 

 

The next morning Fathima gave a tent to the prince as he needed. He soon went to the court and handed it over to the Sultan. The Sultan wondered and said, “That’s amazing" But the chief courtier, the witch looked at the tent carefully. 

 

Then the Sultan asked the prince, you have to find a man of not more than four feet and he should have a thirty feet long beard and also carry a tonne of iron on his shoulders!" 

 

Then he went to his wife and said that the second test was not also possible. 

 

But Fathima said to him. “O my prince you don’t worry for that also." My brother is such a man you have spoken now. His name is Shabir. I shall call him tomorrow morning." 

 

To his wonder, the next day Shabir came there. He was a short man with a thirty feet long beard and carrying a heavy iron rod on his shoulder. 

 

Prince Arfan was very glad and said," Come my friend, and let’s go to the Sultan. 

 

Now Fathima Banu asked her brother to put an end to the witch courtier s plan to kill the prince Arfan. Then they went to the court and stood before the Sultan. On seeing the dwarf⁴ the courtiers including the Sultan were amazed. 

 

The Sultan said. “Prince now also you have succeeded." 

 

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