An Untold Tale from the book Tales from a Thousand and One Nights. 

Originally published in 1888, translated by Richard Burton.

The text you are about to hear is an Arabic literature Fantasy fiction patchwork curated by Torba Studio from multiple passages from the book Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.

My story is quite different from those of my two friends. It was fate that deprived them of the sight of their right eyes, but mine was lost by my own folly.

Once upon a time, the gate led into a square court, into which opened a hundred doors, ninety-nine of them being of rare woods and one of gold. Dinner was laid in a magnificent apartment, and the table was covered with delicious fruits.

Every day I opened two or three fresh doors, each of which contained behind it so many curious things that I had no chance of feeling dull.

Next morning I dressed myself and began to look about me. There seemed to be no one but myself on the oasis, which was covered with fruit trees and watered with streams but seemed a long distance from the mainland which I hoped to reach.

I had resolved, as you know, on my return from my first voyage to spend the rest of my days quietly, but very soon, I grew tired of such an idle life and longed once more to find myself upon the sea. 

The sailors ran the ship into a creek, where ten slaves landed.

Half-stunned as I was with all that had happened to me, I rose to my feet, not knowing whether it would contain friends or foes.

The ten young men were not present when I first entered but came in soon after, accompanied by the old man.

The tailor noticed my confusion and was just going to enquire the reason when the door of the room opened, and the old man appeared, 

carrying with him my hatchet and shoes.

My ten hosts then took a sheep, killed it, and handed me a knife, which they said I should by and by find useful.

'We must sew you into this sheepskin,' said they, 'and then leave you. A fowl of monstrous size called a roc, will appear in the air, taking you to be a sheep.'

After the young gentlemen had been at the trouble of sewing the sheepskin on me, they left me and retired to the hall.

In a few minutes, the roc appeared, 'I am a genie.' he said and bore me off to the top of the mountain in his huge claws as lightly as if I had been a feather, for this great white bird is so strong that he has been known to carry even an elephant to his nest in the hills.

When I reached the top, I found the brass dome and the statue exactly as the sailor had described, but I was too wearied with all I had gone through to do more than glance at them and, flinging myself under the dome, was asleep in an instant. 

When I woke, I thought that I must have been dreaming. The very last time I saw him, he seemed more delighted to see me than ever. He was burning to enquire the reason of it all. Of course, I did not dream of refusing him anything he asked. 'My cousin,' he exclaimed, 'I do not know how to thank you for your kindness. Farewell.' 

'What do you mean?' I cried. 'I don't understand.'

Greatly puzzled, having once got me in his power, I felt he could show no mercy, and I was right. 

‘You have come to me to take his place, and I will do my best to forget that.’  As he spoke, his anger melted into tears. My heart sank when I perceived that, and I wept with him. When he recovered himself, he drew me to him. 'My dear nephew,' he said, embracing me and tore out my right eye. That is how I lost it. 

'My dear nephew.' He said again, then assured me that, even when I had lost my eye, I should be unable to remain with them, as their number was complete and could not be added to. Then he turned and went up the stairs.

'Who are you? Who are you?' she said. 'A man or a genie?'

'A man, madam,' I replied; 'I have nothing to do with genies.' 

The genie commanded the young man to slay the princess.

'O genie!' I cried, 'as you wish to spare my life, be generous, and spare it altogether. Grant my prayer, and pardon my crime, as the best man in the whole world forgave his neighbor who was eaten up with envy of him.' Contrary to my hopes, the genie seemed interested in my words.

'I see,' said the genie, 'that you have both made up your minds to brave me, but I will give you a sample of what you may expect.' So saying, with one sweep of his sabre, he cut off a hand of the princess, who was just able to lift the other to wave me an eternal farewell, 'Fly, or you are lost.' I followed her advice and dashed up the staircase, leaving my hatchet behind me.

I wandered about for a whole month without knowing where I was going. My face and hands had been burned nearly black; my clothes were all in rags, and my shoes were in such a state that I had been forced to abandon them altogether. The tailor, who had been uneasy at my long absence, was delighted to see me; but I kept silent about my adventure. I thanked him gratefully and tried to console myself for the loss of my eye by thinking of the other misfortunes I had escaped; then, being very hungry, I gladly ate the food he put before me and accepted his offer of a lodging in his house. And as soon as possible, I retired to my room to lament in secret over my folly.

This madam, is my story.