Just so stories
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
I showed 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 I stamped
with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s Palace and this garden here would
immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.’
Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud forgot his nine hundred and ninety-nine
bothersome wives, and laughed, till the camphor-tree shook, at the
Butterfly’s boast. And he held out his finger and said, ‘Little man,
come here.’
The Butterfly was dreadfully frightened, but he managed to fly up to
the hand of Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and clung there, fanning himself.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, ‘Little man,
you know that all your stamping wouldn’t bend one blade of grass. What
made you tell that awful fib to your wife?--for doubtless she is your
wife.’
The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin-Daoud and saw the most wise King’s
eye twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he picked up his courage
with both wings, and he put his head on one side and said, ‘O King, live
for ever. She is my wife; and you know what wives are like.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud smiled in his beard and said, ‘Yes, I know, little
brother.
‘One must keep them in order somehow, said the Butterfly, and she has
been quarrelling with me all the morning. I said that to quiet her.’
And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, ‘May it quiet her. Go back to your wife,
little brother, and let me hear what you say.’
Back flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was all of a twitter behind
a leaf, and she said, ‘He heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself heard
you!’
‘Heard me!’ said the Butterfly. ‘Of course he did. I meant him to hear
me.’
‘And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?’
‘Well,’ said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly, ‘between
you and me, my dear--of course I don’t blame him, because his Palace
must have cost a great deal and the oranges are just ripening,--he asked
me not to stamp, and I promised I wouldn’t.’
‘Gracious!’ said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud
laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad
little Butterfly.
Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind the tree among the red lilies
and smiled to herself, for she had heard all this talk. She thought,
‘If I am wise I can yet save my Lord from the persecutions of these
quarrelsome Queens,’ and she held out her finger and whispered softly to
the Butterfly’s Wife, ‘Little woman, come here.’ Up flew the Butterfly’s
Wife, very frightened, and clung to Balkis’s white hand.
Balkis bent her beautiful head down and whispered, ‘Little woman, do you
believe what your husband has just said?’
The Butterfly’s Wife looked at Balkis, and saw the most beautiful
Queen’s eyes shining like deep pools with starlight on them, and she
picked up her courage with both wings and said, ‘O Queen, be lovely for
ever. You know what men-folk are like.’
And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to her lips
to hide a smile and said, ‘Little sister, I know.’
‘They get angry,’ said the Butterfly’s Wife, fanning herself quickly,
‘over nothing at all, but we must humour them, O Queen. They never mean
half they say. If it pleases my husband to believe that I believe he
can make Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s Palace disappear by stamping his foot, I’m
sure I don’t care. He’ll forget all about it to-morrow.’
‘Little sister,’ said Balkis, ‘you are quite right; but next time he
begins to boast, take him at his word. Ask him to stamp, and see what
will happen. We know what men-folk are like, don’t we? He’ll be very
much ashamed.’
Away flew the Butterfly’s Wife to her husband, and in five minutes they
were quarrelling worse than ever.
‘Remember!’ said the Butterfly. ‘Remember what I can do if I stamp my
foot.’
‘I don’t believe you one little bit,’ said the Butterfly’s Wife. ‘I
should very much like to see it done. Suppose you stamp now.’
‘I promised Suleiman-bin-Daoud that I wouldn’t,’ said the Butterfly,
‘and I don’t want to break my promise.’
‘It wouldn’t matter if you did,’ said his wife. ‘You couldn’t bend
a blade of grass with your stamping. I dare you to do it,’ she said.
Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!’
Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sitting under the camphor-tree, heard every word
of this, and he laughed as he had never laughed in his life before. He
forgot all about his Queens; he forgot all about the Animal that came
out of the sea; he forgot about showing off. He just laughed with joy,
and Balkis, on the other side of the tree, smiled because her own true
love was so joyful.
Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, came whirling back under
the shadow of the camphor-tree and said to Suleiman, ‘She wants me to
stamp! She wants to see what will happen, O Suleiman-bin-Daoud! You know
I can’t do it, and now she’ll never believe a word I say. She’ll laugh
at me to the end of my days!’
‘No, little brother,’ said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, ‘she will never laugh at
you again,’ and he turned the ring on his finger--just for the little
Butterfly’s sake, not for the sake of showing off,--and, lo and behold,
four huge Djinns came out of the earth!
‘Slaves,’ said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, ‘when this gentleman on my finger’
(that was where the impudent Butterfly was sitting) ‘stamps his left
front forefoot you will make my Palace and these gardens disappear in
a clap of thunder. When he stamps again you will bring them back
carefully.’
‘Now, little brother,’ he said, ‘go back to your wife and stamp all
you’ve a mind to.’
Away flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was crying, ‘I dare you to do
it! I dare you to do it! Stamp! Stamp now! Stamp!’ Balkis saw the four
vast Djinns stoop down to the four corners of the gardens with the
Palace in the middle, and she clapped her hands softly and said, ‘At
last Suleiman-bin-Daoud will do for the sake of a Butterfly what he
ought to have done long ago for his own sake, and the quarrelsome Queens
will be frightened!’
The the butterfly stamped. The Djinns jerked the Palace and the gardens
a thousand miles into the air: there was a most awful thunder-clap, and
everything grew inky-black. The Butterfly’s Wife fluttered about in the
dark, crying, ‘Oh, I’ll be good! I’m so sorry I spoke. Only bring the
gardens back, my dear darling husband, and I’ll never contradict again.’
The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as his wife, and
Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed so much that it was several minutes before
he found breath enough to whisper to the Butterfly, ‘Stamp again, little
brother. Give me back my Palace, most great magician.’
‘Yes, give him back his Palace,’ said the Butterfly’s Wife, still flying
about in the dark like a moth. ‘Give him back his Palace, and don’t
let’s have any more horrid.magic.’
‘Well, my dear,’ said the Butterfly as bravely as he could, ‘you see
what your nagging has led to. Of course it doesn’t make any difference
to me--I’m used to this kind of thing--but as a favour to you and to