151 Stories of Arabian Nights

There lived a hedgehog along with his wife beside a palm tree. On the palm tree was a nest built by the wood-pigeon where he lived happily with his wife. The hedgehog started becoming envious of the pigeon as the latter was able to eat the fruit of the date tree as much as he […]

Once when a sparrow was flying, he found a herd of sheep below him and an eagle descending down on the sheep. The eagle caught hold of a small lamb and swiftly carried it away to eat. This sight emboldened the sparrow to think that he could also do the feat of the eagle. He

The crow continued, “Once there was a very cruel and oppressive saker. All the other birds including the kite, the falcon and the likes, feared him. Saker inflicted wounds on other birds by attacking them. He was very cunning to eat from the catch of other birds. As time passed by, the saker became weak

There was a flea that lived in a merchant’s house. One night he ate the merchant’s blood by biting him and escaped from his house from the fear of getting killed, to a mouse’s dwelling. The flea pleaded the mouse to allow him to stay with him and that he would repay his debt one

There was a fox that lived in a cave with young ones. Whenever she gave birth to young ones, she would eat the healthiest one for his hunger, yet always felt sorry for this. Then he thought to make friendship with a cow lived nearby and tried to find ways and means for food so

Once upon a time, a crow and a cat were great friends and they lived together. One day, a leopard came very close towards them on the sly. The crow quickly flew higher to escape. The cat was sad and recollected the saying; a friend should come to the aid in times of distress. The

A poor peasant had a mouse and an Ichneumon as his pets. One day his friend fell sick and was advised by the doctor to eat husked sesame. The peasant asked his wife to dry some sesame. The ichneumon saw the sesame being dried and put some inside his hole to eat. When he came

A water fowl was once merrily flying in his territory, when he saw a dead body of none other than the son of Adam, floating in water, who was killed by his enemies. As the bird started to rejoice that God had given him food in the form of carcass, some vultures and kites suddenly

There lived a man in Baghdad much disgusted with his life. Only when one night a man in his dreams said, “Go to Cairo, where treasure awaits you”, he set forth to Cairo and went to a mosque to rest. In a nearby house where thieves struck, people’s noise couldn’t make them succeed in their

The rich Qasim and the poor Ali Baba were brothers. Ali Baba earned through cutting wood. One day, he saw forty robbers opening a rock saying “Open Sesame” and for coming out, saying “Close Sesame”. When they left, he did the same and inside the rock saw gold and silver. He filled the bags on

Princess Parizade set out herself to find the talking bird, the singing tree and the golden water and also her brothers. With the dervish’s advice, she found the talking bird in a cage and collected the golden water in a flask. As the singing tree was big, she took a branch of the tree. After

Sultan Khusrau Shah of Persia had the habit of going about town incognito to see how his subjects lived. One day, he overheard a conversation among three sisters. While the first and second sisters expressed their desire to marry the baker, the youngest one willed to become the wife of the Sultan himself. The next

On the New Year eve, the King of Persia was made acquainted to a horse led by an Indian that could travel miles within minutes. The Prince, taking only half of the instructions of operating the horse from the Indian, set off his journey without knowing how to touch down the earth. The furious yet

Ali Cogia, a merchant made his way to Mecca, after being continuously prodded by an old man in his dream. He disposed of all belongings except one thousand pieces of gold hidden in a vase full of olives and kept them in his friend’s house. But he subsequently forgot about where he kept them after

After hearing the story of the blind man and the dervish, the Caliph enquired the horse-beater, Sidi Nouman, for his cruel behaviour, who defended him-self with a reason. Sidi Nouman had married Amina, who, though was beautiful yet held a strange habit of eating rice with a needle. One night, she got dressed up and