She answered him, smiling, “Remember when you told me, ‘Look around you, and take whatever pleases you and bring it with you?’ Nothing else could be as dear to me as you. So, I took you …”
Once there was a king and this king had a dearly beloved son who said to him, “King, my father, let me go to the market and see your subjects.”
“Do what you please,” the king replied to him. So, the prince went to the market, and said to all the men there, “You must not sell or buy, you must not buy or sell until you can answer these riddles. Who is it who in the morning walks on four feet, at noon on two, and on three in the evening? Second, what tree has twelve branches with thirty leaves to a branch?”
No one knew what to answer. All were mute. The marketers dispersed. A week went by. The next market day brought back the king’s son. He asked, “Have you found the answers to my riddles?” Once again, all were silent, and they went away. He, who went to buy, bought not. And he who went to sell, sold not. The market closed.
But, among those assembled was the market supervisor. He was very poor and had two daughters – one very beautiful and the other, the younger, slight but keen of mind.
In the evening when her father came home, the younger said to him, “Father for two market days you left home, but you returned empty-handed. Why?”
“My daughter,”, he replied, “the king’s son came and told us not to buy or sell, and not to sell or buy until we would know the meaning of what he was going to say.”
“And what did the prince ask you to guess?” asked the girl. “He asked us ‘Who is it who in the morning walks on four feet, at noon on two, and on three in the evening? And, what tree has twelve branches with thirty leaves to a branch?”
His daughter reflected a little before replying: “It’s easy, father, He who walks in the morning on four feet, at noon, on two, and on three in the evening is Man. In the morning of his life, he crawls on all fours, later, he goes on two feet, and when he is old, he leans on a cane. As for the tree, it is the year, with its twelve months and each month has thirty days.”
A week went by – in its course it brought another market day and with it the king’s son. He asked, “Have you figured it out, today?” The supervisor spoke up. He said, “Yes, my lord. He who walks in the morning on four feet, on two at noon and on three in the evening is Man. In the morning of his life, he crawls on all fours, when older he goes on two feet, and when he is very old, he leans on a cane. As for the tree, it is the year; the year has twelve months and each month has thirty days.”
“Open up the market!”, commanded the king’s son. Then evening fell; the prince approached the supervisor and said to him, “I want to go to your house.” The supervisor replied, “Good sir.” And they went off together on foot.
The prince declared, “I have fled from God’s paradise. I refused what God desired. The way is long; carry me or I shall carry you. Speak, or I shall speak”. The supervisor kept still. They came to a river and the king’s son said, “Make me cross the river or I shall make you cross it”. The supervisor, who understood nothing of this, did not answer. They arrived at the house.
The younger daughter of the supervisor (she who was frail but intuitive), opened the door for them and said, “Welcome! My mother has gone out to see someone she has never seen. My brothers are fighting water with water. My sister finds herself between two walls.”
The King’s son came in. Looking at the most beautiful daughter, he said, “The plate is beautiful, but it has a crack in it.”
Night found the whole family united. One had slaughtered a chicken and one had prepared a holiday couscous. When the meal was ready, the prince said, “Let me be the one to serve the chicken.” He gave the head to the father, the wings to the daughters, the thighs to the two sons, the breast to the mother. He kept the feet for himself.
Everyone ate and then got ready to spend the evening. The king’s son turned toward the lively daughter and said to her, “In order for you to tell me, ‘My mother has gone to see someone she has never seen’, she would have to be a midwife. For you to say to me, ‘My brothers are fighting water with water,’ they must have been watering the gardens. As for your sister ‘between two walls’, she would be weaving with a wall behind her and a wall before her – the nature of the trade.”
The girl replied, “When you started out, you told my father, ‘I have fled from God’s paradise.’ That’s the rain, which makes a paradise on earth – so you were afraid of getting wet. And when you said, ‘I refused what God desired’ – was its death you were refusing? God wants us all to die, but we don’t want to. Finally, you said to my father, ‘The way is long, carry me or I shall carry you. Speak or I shall speak’, so that the journey would seem shorter. Just as you told him, when you found yourselves besides the river, ‘Make me cross the river or I shall make you cross it, you meant, ‘show me the ford or I shall seek it.’ When you entered our house, you looked at my sister and said, ‘The plate is beautiful, but it has a crack in it.’ My sister is truly beautiful and virtuous too, but she is the daughter of a poor man. And then you divided the chicken. You gave the head to my father because he is the head of the household. You gave the breast to my mother for she is the heart of the house. To us, the girls, you gave wings, because we won’t stay home here; we’ll take flight. You gave my brothers the thighs; they will be the support, the pillars of the house. And for yourself you took the claws because you are the guest; your feet brought you here and your feet will take you away.”
On the next day the prince went to find the king, his father, and said to him, “I wish to marry the market supervisor’s daughter.” The king exclaimed indignantly, “How could you, the son of a king, marry the daughter of a supervisor? It would be shameful. We would become the laughing stock of our neighbours.”
” If I don’t marry her”, said the prince, “I shall never marry at all”. The king, who had no other son, ended by conceding: “Marry her then, my son, since you do love her.” The prince offered his fiancée gold and silver, silks and satins, and all kinds of marvels. But he also said to her gravely, “Remember this well. The day your wisdom surpasses my own, that day will we part”. She answered, “I will always do everything that you wish.”
Nonetheless, before the wedding day, she sent for the carpenter and ordered a chest the size of a man to be made, with a cover to be pierced with small holes. For the chest she wove a satin lining. She put her trousseau in it and sent it to the home of her bridegroom. The nuptials were followed by rejoicing which lasted seven days and seven nights. The king served a great feast. For many years after, the prince and princess lived happily at the court. And when the king died, his son succeeded him.
One day when the young king was dispensing justice, two women came before him with a child they were quarrelling over. One said, “He’s my son!” and the other claimed, “He’s mine.” They got to shouting and tearing each other’s hair. The king was perplexed. The queen, curious, found out about it from a servant, who told her, “Two women are there with a child whom both are claiming. Each one had a baby, but one of the babies died. And the king hasn’t been able to find out which is the mother of the living child”. The queen thought it over for a moment. Then she replied, “Let the king simply say to the two women. ‘I shall divide the child in two, and each of you will have a half.’ Then he will hear the true mother cry out, ‘Lord, don’t kill him, in God’s name!”
The servants ran to tell the king the trick which would bring out the truth. The king turned toward his minister, saying, “Bring forth a blade so we can divide this child”. “No, Lord” cried out one of the women, “He will die!”
So, the king held out the child to her and said, “You are the mother for you did not want him to die.” Then the king went off to find the queen. He told her, “Do you remember what we agreed to on our wedding day? I said to you, ‘The day your wisdom surpasses my own, that day will we part’.” She answered, “I do remember. But grant me just one favour. Let us eat together for the last time. Then I shall leave.” He consented, and added, “Choose whatever you wish in the palace and take it with you”.
She herself prepared the meal. She gave the king a drug without his suspecting it. He ate, he drank, and suddenly he fell asleep. She lifted him up and put him in the chest, and then carefully closed the lid over him. She called the servants and informed them that she was going to the country for a family visit. She directed them to move the chest cautiously. And she left the palace, never losing sight of the chest which followed. Once she was back in her parents’ home, she opened the chest. She took her husband tenderly in her arms and stretched him out on the bed.
Seated at the head of the bed, she waited patiently for him to wake up. It was evening before the king opened his eyes saying, “Where am I? And who brought me here?”
She answered, “I did”. Then he spoke again to her, “Why? How did I get here?”. And she answered him, smiling, “Remember when you told me, “Look around you, and take whatever pleases you in the palace and bring it with you? Nothing else in the palace could be as dear to me as you. So, I took you. And brought you here in a chest”. Now they understood one another. They returned to the palace and lived happily there together until they died. (Marguerite Amrouche)
