Unfinished Sinbad

Death

There once was an extremely powerful monarch, who was wealthy and spendid beyond compare. He was a beautiful man who dressed in silk clothes. He had a stable of the swiftest Arabian steeds and the fiercest mamelukes around. He was incredibly vain and when death came to humbly ask him to accompany him, he blew death off. He told death to leave the premise or he would send his mamelukes and physicians to oust him. Death was not pleased by this and bided his time. He waited until the sultan was in full procession in front of all his people to kill him in the most humiliating and painfull fall from his horse.
The next day death had to take an impoverished religious man. The man only asked that he be allowed to pray before death took him. Death agreed to his wish and waited until the man was finished before taking him gently to the other side.

Kamar al Hazman

Kamar al Hazman was an inparticularly beautiful man and the only son of a very powerful sultan. All of the women of the palace adored him, but he was not interested in any of them. As he was a devoted scholar and didn't want to be sullied and distracted by the opposite sex. This disturbed his father immensly, as he was worried about the propagation of the line, and he had the son locked away until he agree to marry somebody. Well while he was locked up a passing jinnee happened to see him and was amazed by his beauty. Latter when he met with two of his friends he expounded upon how he had seen the most beautiful human in existence. One of his friends contradicted him and said "Fie, that's not possible the most beautiful human in the world lives over there and is a woman." An argument ensued, and it was agreed that they should just go check out both the humans together and let the third party of their group decide.
So they went out to the far orient to find Budr, the daughter of a powerful king with snow white skin and breasts like globes, they snatched her up and carried her over to where Kamar was sleeping. After much hemming and hawing the third party decided that they weren't sure who was the more beautiful of the two. So they decided to try waking one and leaving the other asleep. In that way they would be able to decide based upon the difference between their reactions. First they woke Kamar, his eyes opened wide and he proceeded to kiss and grope her trying to wake her up. Then the jinnees put him to sleep. They conversed a little, and then they woke up Budr, who proceed to stradle Kamar and tried desperately to wake him up. The jinnee then put Budr back to sleep, and came to the conclusion that they were equally beautiful. They took Budr back to her home far, far away.
When Kamar awoke he remembered Budr quite clearly, and was desperate to find her. He asked around and asked around, but no one knew who she was and everyone thought that he was insane. Similarly when Budr woke up she was desperate to find Kamar, and when her old serving woman tried to detain her in her search, she cut her in half with a sword. Subsequently her father had her chained in her room.
Things looked bleak for the pair, but Budr's brother believed his sister, and decided to go find him for her. Eventually he came to Kamar's city and he heard his story, and he realized that it must be Kamar. He contrived to get a message to Kamar and helped him escape from his palacial prison.
Kamar travelled over mountains and seas to get to Budr. When Budr realized who he was and that he was just right there out of her reach, she broke her chains. Her father agreed to their marriage and gave them a huge caravan for their journey back to Kamar's city. Things did not go quite so well on the journey back. Kamar got lost and ended up on a small remote island.
Budr when she realized that he was gone disguised herself as a man in order to protect herself, and made her way to the nearest city. Her disguise was quite good and fooled the local sultan, who decided to marry Budr to his daughter. Budr wasn't quite sure how to deal with this situation, but decided that the best thing to do was just go with the flow and marrry the girl. On their wedding night the princess was quite understanding about the fact that Budr was actually a woman, and they made do.
The Sultan quite liked Budr and entrusted him/her with a great deal of authority in his city, and she began to hear petitions. One day it just so happened that a rather bedraggled and newly escaped Kamar came to see her. He didn't recognize her, so she decided to mess with him a little bit. She started coming on to him, and told him that if he didn't sleep with him/her he would be thrown out and tortured. Budr argued that he was still young and had plenty of time to do penance for that sin, and demanded that he take off his pants. Poor Kamar was so horrified, but with tear filled eyes obligingly took off his pants. Budr told him what a fine good man he was and took off her pants, which calmed Kamar down dramatically, and he was elated when he realized it was none other than Budr.
Budr filled him in on the details of what was going on, and said that she quite liked the princess. In fact she told him that she wanted him to marry her, too. Things were straightened out and the three continued on their way to Kamar's home. They lived happily ever after until the great sunderer turned them all to dust.

The Final Voyage of Sinbad the Seaman

The Second Sheik's Story

Qut al Qub

This is my favorite of the Nights stories. Qut al Qub was concubine to the sultan, and she was his favorite above all others. She was extremely well educated and interested in science, and she was extremely envied. One day the Sultan's wife came up with a plot to dispose of her competition while the sultan was away. She had a wooden sculpture made and painted to look just like her, and snuck Qut al Qub some sleeping potion. She was scared to kill her outright, so she had Qut al Qub placed in a coffin with the orders to take her to the cemetery and bury her alive.
The servants did as instructed, although at the cemetery they kept talking about how it was a shame to bury such a treasure. Unknown to them they were overheard by a foreign merchant. Said merchant had become lost while fleeing from a riot, and was trying to find his way out of the cemetery when he overheard and saw the servants. He followed his gut instinct and hid. He heard their conversation about the treasure inside the coffin, and when the servants went off to deal with the riot. He snuck over to the coffin and opened it.
Inside the coffin lay Qut al Qub and he was amazed by her beauty. He also noticed that she was still alive. He picked her up and through many wrong turns and dead ends got her back to his place. He was able to revive her, and she was very grate full and rather randy, but it was at that moment that he noticed something. Written on the drawstrings of her pants was the Sultan's name proclaiming her as his. Meanwhile the Sultan returns only to be told that Qut al Qub was dead from virulent and deadly disease, and from a distance he watched them burn the mannequin.
He backed off, and placed a sword between them in his bed. They continued in this way for a number of days, until information of her whereabouts was linked to the Sultan. Soldiers were sent and the two were brought before him. The Sultan could not believe that the merchant had not touched her, so the merchant was tortured, his goods taken, and he was exiled. Qut al Qub was returned to her place in the harem, but she was not happy.
Eventually she could no longer take it, and she went out in search of him. She searched and she looked; until eventually she found him wasting away from his wounds. She was able to heal him with her skills, but again the Sultan's mamelukes were not far behind. They again were brought before the Sultan, but this time compassion was shown and a deal was struck. Qut al Qub was allowed to marry the merchant, and the Sultan decided to execute his wife and marry the merchant's beautiful sister. They all lived happily ever after until the great sunderer turned them all to dust.

Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman

Sinbad the Landsman was a porter, and he spent his long days carrying other people's things around for them. One day he had an especially heavy load, which lead him to a beautiul mansion. Inside a massive orgy was underway; eventually he was beckoned over by a very well dressed man, who asked him for his name. He told him, and the man with delight exclaimed that his name was also Sinbad. He then told Sinbad the Landsman to stay and eat as much as he wanted, and when he went to leave the wealthy Sinbad gave him two pocket fulls and a half of shekalim and told him to come back the next day. The End.