Once upon a time there lived an orphan named Ahmad. After the death of his parents, he, an orphan, was taken in by his uncle. But he did not feed his nephew for long. Soon he decided to sell the boy at the market and hide the proceeds.
The padishah's entourage walked around the bazaar. They saw a seller with a boy and bought Ahmad for one hundred gold pieces.
The satisfied uncle went home with the money, and Akhmad was sent to work in the stables. He took good care of the horses. They became well-fed, beautiful and strong. The padishah was pleased with the groom.
And the groom himself grew up, matured and soon became an extraordinary handsome man.
The padishah had a young daughter, Sohibjamol. The suitors sent matchmakers, but the girl did not give consent to anyone.
There were many suitors, one better than the other, and the padishah asked his daughter: who does she want to be her husband?
- Ahmad! - answered the daughter.
- How? This groom? Are you crazy? How can a padishah’s daughter marry a slave?
“And you make him free,” said Sohibjamol. But the padishah did not want to hear about such a son-in-law. Sohibjamol secretly met with Ahmad.
“I will not marry anyone but you,” said Sohibjamol.
- What are you talking about, malika! Your father bought me - and I am a slave. I can't marry you. The padishah will not allow it.
- But I won’t listen to my father. Today, prepare your horses and everything you need for the journey. At dawn we will leave with you away from here,” Sohibjamol said to Ahmad.
- I can’t do that! You can't deceive your father!
“I am the daughter of the padishah and I order you to do what I say,” she said. Sohibjamol filled full khurjins with clothes and food and early in the morning, when everyone was still asleep, she and Akhmad mounted the padishah’s best horses and rushed off to seek their happiness.
They crossed the mountains, passed vast steppes and looked like happy doves. There was no dust behind the road, no pursuit was visible.
The padishah was confused when he learned about his daughter’s escape with a slave. He gathered his wazirs and asked them for advice.
“Now nothing can be done,” said the vasirs. “Now she is the master of her own destiny.”
Ahmad and Sohibjamol drove further and further. Here they are driving through wide green pastures.
“If we had a flock of sheep, we would let them graze here,” Sohibjamol dreamed.
They drove into a thick bush, and behind it stood tall reeds.
“If we had a lot of cattle, we would graze them in these thickets,” she said.
They drove across the field, partridges fluttered out from under the stones and flew in front of them.
“If we had a falcon, he would kill us partridges,” Sohibjamol chirped.
But Ahmad dreamed of something else.
“If only I had a plow with a sharp plowshare and oxen in a yoke, I would plow the land and sow grain!” And then he would reap bread and grind flour,” he said.
Finally, the young people arrived at a large unfamiliar city. Here they decided to stop. We found an apartment and began to consult about what to do to earn money for food and not die of hunger.
“I will embroider skullcaps,” Sahibjamol said to her husband. “Go to the market, buy me velvet and silk threads.”
Sohibjamol embroidered, and Ahmad bought velvet and silk threads and sold ready-made skullcaps. But they could hardly feed themselves on this.
“You go to the padishah of this city and ask him to serve so that we don’t need it and live in a palace!” - Sohibjamol said to her husband.
“Oh, I won’t go to the padishah, I don’t want to live in a palace,” answered Ahmad. But Sohibjamol insisted, Ahmad still went to the padishah, and he took
him into his service.
Ahmad and Sohibjamol began to live in a small house at the palace of the padishah. Ahmad served the padishah so well that he fell in love with him and could not do without him.
One day the padishah called Akhmad, but he was not in the yard. The padishah was bored without Ahmad and sent for him home.
The messenger looked into the window of Ahmad's house and saw: Ahmad was sleeping on his bed, and a moon-faced beauty was sitting next to him. The servant ran back to the palace and reported this to the padishah.
- Where did he get the moon-faced beauty from? I want to take her away from Ahmad! - said the padishah.
- It's very simple. Say that you are sick and the tabib ordered you to eat apples of seven colors and seven smells that grow in the garden of Iram for your illness. Peri live in this garden. Forty shaggy and angry dogs guard that garden; they will bite anyone who approaches it. Order Ahmad to get you these apples. He will go after them and will not return. And you will get his wife,” his chief adviser told the padishah.
The next day, Ahmad was told that the padishah was ill, and they conveyed to him the words of his master.
“The Padishah ordered you to get from Iram’s garden apples of seven colors and seven smells, which alone can cure him.
Sad Ahmad returned to his wife. He did not know how to carry out this difficult task.
“I listened to you and entered the service of the padishah.” And now misfortune has befallen us. Apparently, we are destined to part,” said Ahmad.
But Sohibjamol asked her Peri friend to help them.
“Don’t worry and get ready to go,” Sohibjamol told her husband when she arrived home.
On the advice of the peri, Sohibjamol baked buns for her husband for the road, tied them in a bundle, gave them to him and said:
- Take the same road we took here. There, in the middle of dense green bushes, there is a large tree. Climb this tree and look down. Under this tree lives a yellow-golden fox with his forty friends. All foxes sleep at night, but the yellow-golden one does not sleep. She sits under a tree and watches. Then you take the buns out of your bundle, eat one yourself, and give the other to the fox. While she is eating, tell her about your grief.
Ahmad followed a familiar path. Among the bushes he found a large tree, climbed onto it and began to wait. One after another, the foxes gathered under the tree and went to bed. The last one to come running was the yellow-golden fox. She sat down, leaned against the trunk and began to guard her friends.
Ahmad took the buns out of the bundle. He ate one himself, gave the other to the fox, and while she was eating, he told her about his misfortune.
Early in the morning, at dawn, all the foxes woke up one after another and ran away. Only the yellow-golden fox remained under the tree.
“Get off the tree and sit on me,” she said to Ahmad. “Close your eyes and don’t open them until I allow you.”
Ahmad sat on the fox and closed his eyes.
“Open your eyes,” the fox said after a while.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was at the gate of the garden of Iram.
“Stay here, and I’ll go and take the dogs away from the gate.” When they run after me, boldly enter the garden and pick apples.
As soon as the fox appeared to the dogs, they all rushed after it. Ahmad quickly entered the garden, picked apples, put them in his bosom and returned to the gate. Now a fox appeared in front of him, he sat on it and closed his eyes.
When the fox told him to open his eyes, Ahmad saw that they were again under a large tree among the bushes.
And the next morning Ahmad came to the palace and ordered to report to the padishah that he had brought him apples from the garden of Iram.
“Now tell him, sir, to get the milk of a lioness in a lion’s skin.” He will not be able to fulfill this order.
The next day, the wazir informed Ahmad that the apples did not help the padishah and the padishah ordered him to get the milk of a lioness in the skin of a lion. Only it can cure the padishah.
Ahmad came home sad. Sohibjamol listened to him, consulted with her peri friend and said to her husband:
“Do you remember, when we were driving here, we saw reed thickets: an old sick lioness lives there.” Forty children of a lioness hunt in the mountains and feed their mother. This lioness lies like a mountain and cannot rise. One of her paws was rooted to the ground and overgrown with reeds. Help her lift her paw off the ground, and the lioness will do everything you wish.
Sohibjamol quickly prepared her husband for the journey. Soon he reached the reed thickets and saw a sleeping lioness there.
- Hello, queen! - Ahmad told her.
“Hello,” answered the lioness. “It’s very good that you said hello to me.” I kill everyone who is impolite right there.
Ahmad began to ask the lioness about her illness and offered to help her.
- What you! Forty of my children didn’t help me, how can I help you! - exclaimed the lioness.
“And I can free your paw, just lie still and don’t move,” insisted Ahmad.
The lioness agreed, and he began to mow down the reeds around the lioness’s paw with a sharp sword.
Then he grabbed the lioness's paw and pulled her off the ground with force. The lioness rose to her feet and, very pleased, said to Ahmad:
- Dig a hole and lie down in it, I will lie down and cover the hole with myself. Now my children will come running, as if they would not tear you apart.
Ahmad dug a hole and hid in it, the lioness lay down on top and covered the entire hole.
Lions - the lioness's children - began to come running. They sensed a person nearby and bared their teeth angrily.
“Calm down, children,” said the lioness. “Look, this man cured me.”
The lioness stood up and the young lions saw Ahmad.
“Because this man cured me, we must fulfill any of his requests,” the lioness told the children.
Ahmad climbed out of the hole and stood fearlessly in front of the lions.
“Help me get the milk of a lioness in a lion’s skin,” said Ahmad.
- Go, children, with him to that mountain over there. There lies the body of a lion who broke his legs and died of hunger. Not far from the lion lies a lioness, she has just given birth to a cub. Help this man remove the skin from a dead lion and milk the lioness' milk into it.
When all this was done, the lioness ordered her children to take Ahmad to the padishah. The lions quickly brought Ahmad to the palace of the padishah and with their appearance scared all the court guards and warriors to death.
The wazir ran screaming to the padishah:
- Sovereign! Sovereign! Ahmad returned, surrounded by lions, and brought you the milk of a lioness in the skin of a lion.
- Can't be! - the padishah was frightened when he saw the skin of a lion filled with the milk of a lioness.
And at any cost he decided to get rid of this servant who carried out all the assignments.
The Wazir advised the padishah to burn Ahmad at the stake.
“You must go to this world, see the padishah’s parents there and ask them for medicine for the sick person.” This is the last resort,” the Wazir told Ahmad.
Ahmad came home and said to his wife:
“Now, I told you that you don’t need to enter the service of the padishah.” I listened to you, acted your way, and now the end has come for me! I'll have to go to the next world!
Sohibjamol ran to consult her friend Peri.
“Don’t worry,” the peri told her. “No matter what, I will save your husband.” The next day they ordered forty bundles of firewood to be brought and piled up
and pour oil over it. Forty circles of cake were placed on top of the firewood, blankets were laid on the cake, and Ahmad was sat on them. They lit a fire from four corners, the wood caught fire, the flames rose high, and the smoke went to the sky.
At this time, the peri flew up to Ahmad, took him by the hands, carried him out of the fire and brought him home to his wife. And the entire pile of firewood with cake and blankets burned to the ground, leaving only a pile of ash.
The next morning, the frightened padishah was informed that Ahmad had returned from the other world and brought him greetings from his parents. The Padishah and the Wazirs could not believe their eyes when they saw Ahmad.
- How are my parents doing in the next world? - asked the frightened padishah.
“They ordered to bow to the padishah and tell him that they had prepared a cure for all diseases for him. They only asked that the padishah himself visit them.
- But how will I get to the next world? - asked the padishah.
“Just like me,” said Ahmad. “As soon as the fire flared up, I instantly, along with the fire and smoke, rose into the sky and immediately found myself in the next world.
“Vazirs,” said the padishah, “I order you to do everything tomorrow exactly as you did for Ahmad.” I want to visit the next world and see my parents.
In the morning, they prepared a high pile of firewood for the padishah, the padishah climbed onto it and lay down on silk blankets. All the padishah’s relatives and his main vasirs also expressed a desire to fly to the next world and see their relatives.
The pile of firewood and cake, on which the padishah sat with his relatives and courtiers, was generously poured with oil and set on fire on all sides. The fire immediately engulfed all the wood, and the flames rose to the very sky.
For a long time then they waited in the palace for the return of the padishah from the other world, but they never did. Apparently, the padishah really liked it in the next world.
But Ahmad did not wait for the padishah and on the same day, taking Sohibjamol with him, he left the padishah’s palace forever.
They settled far from the city in the mountains, in a small house above the river, and lived happily for many years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru