THIS,O my Best Beloved,is a story--a new and a wonderful story--a story quite different from the other stories--a story about The Most Wise Sovereign Suleiman-bin-Daoud--Solomon the Son of David.
There are three hundred and fifty-five stories about Suleiman-bin-Daoud;but this is not one of them.It is not the story of the Lapwing who found the Water;or the Hoopoe who shaded Suleimanbin-Daoud from the heat.It is not the story of the Glass Pavement,or the Ruby with the Crooked Hole,or the Gold Bars of Balkis.It is the story of the Butterfly that Stamped.
Now attend all over again and listen!
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise.He understood what the beasts said,what the birds said,what the fishes said,and what the insects said.He understood what the rocks said deep under the earth when they bowed in towards each other and groaned;and he understood what the trees said when they rustled in the middle of the morning.He understood everything,from the bishop on the bench to the hyssop on the wall,and Balkis,his Head Queen,the Most Beautiful Queen Balkis,was nearly as wise as he was.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was strong.Upon the third finger of the right hand he wore a ring.When he turned it once,Afrits and Djinns came Out of the earth to do whatever he told them.When he turned it twice,Fairies came down from the sky to do whatever he told them;and when he turned it three times,the very great angel Azrael of the Sword came dressed as a water-carrier,and told him the news of the three worlds,--Above--Below--and Here.
And yet Suleiman-bin-Daoud was not proud.He very seldom showed off,and when he did he was sorry for it.Once he tried to feed all the animals in all the world in one day,but when the food was ready an Animal came out of the deep sea and ate it up in three mouthfuls.Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very surprised and said,'O Animal,who are you?'And the Animal said,'O King,live for ever!I am the smallest of thirty thousand brothers,and our home is at the bottom of the sea.We heard that you were going to feed all the animals in all the world,and my brothers sent me to ask when dinner would be ready.'Suleiman-bin-Daoud was more surprised than ever and said,'O Animal,you have eaten all the dinner that I made ready for all the animals in the world.'And the Animal said,'O King,live for ever,but do you really call that a dinner?Where I come from we each eat twice as much as that between meals.'Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud fell flat on his face and said,'O Animal!I gave that dinner to show what a great and rich king I was,and not because I really wanted to be kind to the animals.Now I am ashamed,and it serves me right.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really truly wise man,Best Beloved.
After that he never forgot that it was silly to show off;and now the real story part of my story begins.
He married ever so many wifes.He married nine hundred and ninety-nine wives,besides the Most Beautiful Balkis;and they all lived in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely garden with fountains.He didn't really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives,but in those days everybody married ever so many wives,and of course the King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King.
Some of the wives were nice,but some were simply horrid,and the horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too,and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud,and that was horrid for him.But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with Suleiman-bin-Daoud.She loved him too much.She sat in her rooms in the Golden Palace,or walked in the Palace garden,and was truly sorry for him.
Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring on his finger and call up the Djinns and the Afrits they would have magicked all those nine hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome wives into white mules of the desert or greyhounds or pomegranate seeds;but Suleiman-bin-Daoud thought that that would be showing off.So,when they quarrelled too much,he only walked by himself in one part of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished he had never been born.
One day,when they had quarrelled for three weeks--all nine hundred and ninety-nine wives together--Suleiman-bin-Daoud went out for peace and quiet as usual;and among the orange trees he met Balkis the Most Beautiful,very sorrowful because Suleiman-bin-Daoud was so worried.And she said to him,'O my Lord and Light of my Eyes,turn the ring upon your finger and show these Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia and China that you are the great and terrible King.'But Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his head and said,'O my Lady and Delight of my Life,remember the Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed before all the animals in all the world because I showed off.Now,if Ishowed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China,merely because they worry me,I might be made even more ashamed than I have been.'
And Balkis the Most Beautiful said,'O my Lord and Treasure of my Soul,what will you do?'
And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said,'O my Lady and Content of my Heart,I shall continue to endure my fate at the hands of these nine hundred and ninety-nine Queens who vex me with their continual quarrelling.'
So he went on between the lilies and the loquats and the roses and the cannas and the heavy-scented ginger-plants that grew in the garden,till he came to the great camphor-tree that was called the Camphor Tree of Suleiman-bin-Daoud.But Balkis hid among the tall irises and the spotted bamboos and the red lillies behind the camphor-tree,so as to be near her own true love,Suleiman-bin-Daoud.
Presently two Butterflies flew under the tree,quarrelling.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud heard one say to the other,'I wonder at your presumption in talking like this to me.Don't you know that if Istamped with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace and this garden here would immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.'
