The Magic Horse
“Any more wonder?” asked the King of Persia. This was the day of the year when the king loved to witness all that was magnificent. Magicians and wizards gathered in droves to demonstrate their tricks and feats, returning with bagfuls of pure gold.
The Wooden Horse
“Last but not least, my lord, here is a wooden horse,” proclaimed a man who resembled the cousin of a scarecrow. “You present a wooden horse to the King of Persia, who owns ten thousand of the finest horses in the world, and call it wonderful!” demanded the king, his face the color of an overripe orange.
“My lord, my wooden horse can drive your ten thousand real horses to hide in shame,” asserted the man. He hopped onto it and gave a gentle twist to its left ear, and lo and behold! The horse rose into the sky.
A Ride Into the Sky
Higher and higher soared the horse and its rider, leaving the king and the crowd gaping in amazement. They descended ten minutes later, the scarecrow showing a proud smile.
“Price, please?” the king asked, once he found his voice. “The princess!” replied the man. Yes, he would agree to no other price than the princess for his wife, not even for the most charming chief maid.
The Prince’s Leap
The prince, observing the spectacle and the ensuing negotiation with great interest, suddenly jumped onto the horse and twisted its left ear. The next moment, he was seen disappearing beyond the clouds.
“Ha ha!” laughed the king, “He loves his sister too well to allow you to marry her.”
“But how will the prince return? He never learned the trick! Ha ha!” chuckled the man.
Captured by the King
The king looked as gloomy as an overcast sky. “Dump this fellow in a dungeon!” he ordered. The man pleaded that he was not to blame for the prince’s rashness. “You are to blame for your laugh,” growled the king.
A Magical Journey
High over the city and the hills flew the magic horse, carrying the prince through layers of clouds—silver, gold, and diamond hues. As the moon grew big and bright, a million stars twinkled in a sky that had never looked so splendidly blue.
Coming to a decision to return, the prince soon realized that he did not know how. Cleverly, he gave a twist to the horse’s right ear, and it began to descend. However, he then remembered that he did not know how to guide the horse to a specific destination.
The Castle Adventure
The horse landed atop a grand castle, where all was silent. Leaving the horse in a corner of the roof, the daring prince descended the stairs into a wide hall filled with armed men—all asleep. He crossed into a smaller hall filled with armed women—also asleep. He finally entered a magnificent room where a beauty lay sleeping on an ivory cot.
“What a beauty!” whispered the prince to himself, bringing his face as close as decency would permit. But the princess opened her wide eyes, looking astonished.
An Unexpected Encounter
“Sorry for disturbing your sleep,” said the prince.
“You ought to be sorry for violating several other palace rules before being sorry for that,” remarked the princess.
“I, the prince of Persia, am here seeking your hospitality, led astray—but now I doubt if astray is the word—by a magic horse.”
“I, the princess of Bengal, am not sure that I am not dreaming. But you are welcome,” replied the beauty.
A Blossoming Romance
The princess woke her maids and arranged for the prince to stay in a comfortable private apartment. Despite her initial doubts, she continued to overwhelm the prince with her lavish hospitality. Days turned into weeks, and the two realized that it would be very hard for either to separate from the other.
“Let us first escape to Persia. Your father would surely agree to our marriage,” proposed the prince.
The adventurous princess agreed, and at midnight, they rode the magic horse high into the sky. Although the prince remembered that he did not know how to direct the horse, he whispered, “To the capital of Persia!” to it, and to his delight, the wooden horse had an uncanny sense of geography. The towers of his town soon became visible through the clouds.
A Twisted Fate
However, instead of going straight to the palace, the prince landed in a garden and hurried to report to his father, leaving the horse and princess behind.
The king jumped up in joy upon hearing of his son’s return. The first thing he did was free the owner of the wooden horse, rewarding him with a bagful of gold and a kindly smile. Yet, upon learning from others about the prince’s return with a beautiful bride, the man rushed towards the garden. As the king was still organizing a procession to welcome the princess of Bengal, the fellow met her and said, “The king and the prince have sent for you. Hurry up!”
The Scarecrow’s Deceit
The impatient princess did not reflect on why a scarecrow would be sent to escort her to the palace. She jumped onto the magic horse alongside the fellow, who took off into the sky with her.
The great royal procession witnessed the horse rising into the frothy clouds. The king swooned, more angry than sorrowful.
“Father! Either I will come back with the princess, or I will not be back at all,” the prince stated when the king regained his composure.
The king nodded in understanding, wiping his eyes as the prince galloped away.
A Battle for Freedom
The scarecrow landed in a forest in a faraway country. “You must marry me,” he demanded, seizing the princess with force.
“I would rather die,” shrieked the princess, struggling to free herself.
“If one must die, it must be the other,” a booming voice declared from behind. The next moment, the kidnapper lay slain, and the princess was taken by the rider.
The Mysterious Rider
“Who are you?” asked the princess, trembling.
“I am someone who marries the damsels I save,” replied the rider. The princess screamed again. Despite many hearing her cry, no one dared speak, for her captor was the sultan of the land. Yet she continued to struggle against him.
The Imprisoned Princess
She was imprisoned in a beautiful mansion. Physician after physician attempted to cure her. Some lost parts of their beards to the princess, while others lost their entire beards. And there was not a physician without a beard. The increasingly violent princess was now ready to bite anyone who approached.
“You must not go near a biting princess,” warned the sultan’s granny. “A lady’s teeth bear poison. A bite from a mad princess can be incurably poisonous.”
The Prince’s Plan
At last, a young physician arrived, claiming he had cured the King of Kabul of his baldness and the King of Kashmir of his bulging belly. The sultan, hopeful, led him to the princess. However, as soon as the screaming princess lunged at him, the physician uttered, in a sing-song tone, “This beard, O princess, have I grown on account of you!”
Immediately, the princess recognized the voice of her prince. She stopped screaming, and he asked the sultan to leave them alone for a while. The sultan obliged with astonishment.
The Magical Solution
The prince devised a plan and discussed it with the princess before leaving. He inquired with the sultan about how he came to possess such a wonderful prize as the princess of Bengal. The sultan recounted the story of the magic horse, which the prince already knew.
“Now I understand. The princess’s madness stems from the magic horse. I can make the horse remove the craziness from her if she sits on it for an hour while it is grounded,” said the prince confidently. The magic horse was brought from the royal museum, and the princess was instructed to sit on it.
The Return to Persia
As the prince recited strange words and lit a fire around the horse, the sultan was amazed by the outcome. No longer was the princess angry at beards, even though they were abundant around her. With flames and smoke enveloping the horse, the prince hopped on and twisted its left ear promptly, and they soared into a clear sky. The prince laughed while the princess giggled, looking below as the sultan’s bodyguards hurled their weapons and courtiers flung their bejeweled staffs, but only a clown’s cap touched the tip of the horse’s tail.
In a few hours, they arrived in Persia. They married as soon as the prince had shaved off his beard.
A Proud Father
The king of Bengal was proud to have a son-in-law who traveled on a flying horse, for the sons-in-law of fellow kings had nothing better than ordinary horses to ride.