Once, a Prince visited his uncle, the King, and his cousin. He met his cousin, but his uncle was away. His cousin had a beautiful lady as his guest. After a lavish meal, his cousin, carrying a pickaxe and a little plaster, took his guests to a place where he opened a door with a pickaxe. It was a tomb! His cousin looked at the Prince and said, “You must go back now.” He went in with the lady and closed the door. The Prince returned to his kingdom to find the city captured by the wicked Vazir. The Prince, on the Vazir’s orders, was blinded in one eye! It was the vengeance of the Vazir, for the Prince having injured him when he was a child! The Vazir ordered that the Prince be killed, but the men who took him away to kill him, pitying him, told him to go away quickly.
Escape to Baghdad
The Prince escaped and reached his uncle, who looked sad because he did not know where his son was. The Prince told his uncle about his earlier visit, meeting his cousin and the beautiful lady and going to the tomb. His uncle rushed there and broke open the door, which had been sealed with the plaster by his cousin. Inside, his cousin and the beautiful lady lay dead! His cousin died without telling his father that he wished to marry her! The King was heart-broken, but his troubles were not over. Suddenly, the kingdom was attacked by the forces of the Vazir. The Prince joined his uncle in defending the kingdom, but the King was already disheartened by his son’s death. The Vazir’s forces defeated them and killed his uncle too. The Prince escaped to Baghdad, finding shelter and peace in the kingdom of the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid.
