In ancient times, there lived a young man, and he lived on the outskirts of a powerful empire. He was smart and quick-witted and impressed everyone with his easy-going nature and ability to learn. He lived alone with his widow mother.
The time came and his mother said:
“Anwar,” or that was his name, “it’s time for you to think about how to arrange your life.” I know that you, like other guys, helped the peasants. I know that you can sit at home and knit baskets when there is nothing else to do. However, the time has come to choose, you must either get married or go in search of your luck around the world. At least that's what I think about it.
- Dear mother! - answered the young man. “Know that this is exactly what I am going to do.” I can stay at home and get a job with one of the peasants; or try some reckless travel to distant lands. But I decided that before I did anything like that, I would become an important person and at the same time stay close to home: know that I will marry the emperor’s daughter, after which I will live happily!
“You don’t often come across such thoughts among people of our circle,” said the old woman. Few of us, ordinary workers, have seen the emperor, let alone his daughter. Who are you, may I ask, to go to the sovereign with such a wild request?
“Mother, I’m nobody, but you are another matter.” I want you to go to the emperor and ask permission to become his daughter-in-law!
Imagine how the poor woman felt. Anwar was the apple of her eye, but his request showed all his recklessness and even bad manners.
- Nonsense! - she reprimanded and loaded her son with so much work that for a while he forgot his plan.
However, something soon reminded him, and he again began to pester his mother until she finally packed up her modest belongings and left for the capital of the Empire.
Day after day the poor woman wandered around the palace. She saw guards in shining armor, she saw embassies leaving and arriving from distant lands, and she even saw the high walls behind which the emperor himself sat in his throne room. The streets were as lively as in any capital. There were processions and nobles everywhere, edifying the inhabitants with their appearance. However, how to get an appointment with such a person as the emperor? She tried and tried, and finally came to the thought: “If the emperor does not allow me to approach, then I must wait until he himself approaches me!”
Having decided so, she sat down near the magnificent mosque, where the emperor came to pray on his white horse on Fridays, and sat there day and night. There were a lot of people crowding there, but the woman soon became famous for sitting in the same place all the time. She chose it because it was in that direction that the monarch pointed his horse after he mounted it.
One Friday, when she was sitting quietly in her usual place, the emperor put his foot in the stirrup and looked in her direction. The woman immediately raised her hands in supplication.
“Bring that woman to the palace,” ordered the monarch, who noticed her gesture.
A few minutes later she was in the throne room.
“I see you are not rich,” said His Majesty, “if you are looking for gifts from me, say so!”
But Anwar's mother was so stunned by the grandeur of the palace and the fact that she was talking to a great man that although her mouth was wide open, not a sound came from it.
The emperor ordered to give her a bag of gold and point to the door.
“Such people will always be satisfied with money,” he told his courtiers.
When the woman returned home, her son asked her:
-Have you seen the emperor?
- Yes, Anwar! I actually saw him!
- And you turned to him?
- Yes!
- And he answered?
- Yes.
- And what did he answer to my proposal to marry his daughter Salma?
- Stupid boy! How could I, dressed in rags, with manners worse than anyone in the yard, offer him such a thing? I was so overwhelmed by the grandeur of the palace that I could not make a sound. However, His Imperial Majesty was more than generous and presented us with this bag, heavy with gold. You can use it to open a trade and it will become your career and your life's work. Forget your stupid dreams of a princess!
- Mom, I don’t need gold, I need a princess! - said Anwar.
He continued to pester her and she had to go to the capital again.
There the emperor saw her again, sitting in her usual place. She called out to him, and he ordered her to be taken to the palace. But the old woman was still afraid to say anything, and the emperor sent her away with another reward.
She returned to their hut again, and Anwar, not at all satisfied with the emperor’s kindness, said to his mother:
“I decided not to stay at home anymore. I made the decision to give up the comfortable life that this gold could give me. I have decided to seek the hand of the emperor's daughter, and tomorrow morning I will go out in search of a way to her.
As soon as dawn broke, he left his house and walked away along the forest road. At the turn to a high hill, he saw an old man sitting by the road in clothes with a pointed hood, sewn from small squares.
- Peace be with you, Your Presence, Dervish! - Anwar said politely.
-What are you looking for, little brother? - the dervish asked in response.
“I’m looking for a way to get to the emperor and ask for the hand of his daughter, because I passionately desire this,” said Anwar.
“It will be difficult to do,” said the sage, “until you are ready to master the Ability That No One Has.”
“How can there be an ability that no one else has?” - asked the young man.
“No one has it, because people use it,” said the dervish. “And they can only use it when they have something else.” When they have it, the ability works for them, so they don't have to have it.
“This is all very complicated,” said Anwar, “but still, could you tell me how I can get to this ability?”
“Of course,” said the old man. - Stay straight all the time, don’t let anything distract you from this road, and don’t think that there are things more important than this road.
Anwar thanked the dervish and went on his way. It led him further and further, and he followed it, feeding on wild fruits, roots, berries and the kindness of the people he met.
From time to time people tried to hire him, or interest him in his craft; or even marry him to your daughters. But Anwar continued on his way, despite the fact that he felt more and more that the road led nowhere at all.
And then, one day, at dusk, Anwar saw that the road ended. Instead of passing by a tall fortress, it led straight inside through a wide gate.
Anwar tried to enter, and the guard called out to him:
-What are you looking for?
“I am looking for a Princess whom I intend to marry,” Anwar answered.
“You won’t come here until you have a more serious reason than this!” - the guard shouted and pointed the tip of his spear at poor Anwar.
Anwar said:
- Well, okay, then I came to get an Ability That No One Has.
“That’s a different matter,” the guard said, lowering his weapon. Then he added gloomily, “but someone must have told you about it, because usually everyone thinks they can get straight to the princess.”
Anwar entered and found himself in the courtyard of a huge castle. In a small gazebo, he noticed a silent figure sitting in contemplation. As Anwar approached, he recognized her as the same dervish he had met on the road so many moons ago!
“Since you finally came here, without being tempted by anything along the way,” said the dervish, “you can move on to the next test.”
He pointed Anwar toward a long, low meditation hall where the dervishes sat in rows with their heads on their knees.
Anwar sat down next to them. Then the dervishes began to perform the exercises, and Anwar had to repeat everything after them. When it was all over, he was sent to the Head Gardener, digging and hoeing, watering and weeding, tending plants and trimming paths until his hands were sore and his back sore. This went on for many months.
He was then directed to the Abbot of the Monastery, and Anwar spent hours in his room while he looked at him, saying nothing. This continued for several more months.
After this, he was assigned to the kitchen, where he worked like a slave, preparing food for hundreds of dervishes who lived in the surrounding area, and for people who simply came to the monastery and on holidays organized by the brethren.
At times Anwar felt useful, at times he felt like he was wasting his time because he was constantly thinking about the Princess and the "Ability No One Has".
But the worst was yet to come. This was when he didn't have a job. He was not invited to do exercises with the dervishes, there was no place for him either in the kitchen or in the garden. Many young men came and went, most of them seemed quite happy, but from talking to them it was impossible to find out anything about the brotherhood and what all this activity meant, or even if it meant anything at all.
And then one day, a few years later, it happened that Anwar was called to the Abbot of the Monastery. As soon as he entered the haira, the room in which the Abbot received people, he saw that the Abbot was ready to fall into a well, which suddenly opened in the middle of the floor. Anwar barely managed to save him.
- My son! - said the sage, handing him the key, - take this key and keep it all your life.
Anwar continued to live and work in the monastery until one day he was called to the head gardener, and he saw that one tree was ready to fall right on the head of the sage. Anwar saved his life too.
- My son! - said the head of the gardeners, - take this object - a crystal lens - and keep it all your life.
He returned to work and after a long time was called to the chef. As soon as he entered, he saw the cook stretch out his hand to take a red-hot ladle from a pot standing on the fire. Anwar grabbed it first and burned his finger.
- My son! - said the kitchen chef, - now there will be a callus at the base of your thumb. Keep it for your whole life.
Many months passed, and Anwar was called to the meeting hall where the dervishes were having dinner. At the head of the table sat an arrogant prince, dressed in luxurious clothes, with an expression of obvious superiority on his face. The prince told a long and complicated story. When he finished, Anwar heard, as if inside himself, the prince’s voice: “Remember this story and keep it all your life.”
Many more days passed before he was called to the same gazebo in the garden in which he met the dervish. When he arrived there, the dervish was sitting in the same position. He raised his head and said:
- Anwar! Now you are ready to continue your search. You will succeed, for I have given you “The Ability That No One Has.”
“But I don’t understand,” Anvar was surprised.
“If you think you understand, you don’t understand.” On the other hand, if you think you don't understand, you can use it freely.
- I still don't understand.
“If you had left us, you would never have learned,” said the dervish. - And if I kick you out, you will learn. If you try to go back, you won't learn. If you need help, I will show up.
- Why? - asked the embarrassed Anwar.
- Because, in addition to the things that you have, I am a part of the “Ability” that cannot remain with you, and therefore must remain in me!
And Anwar walked away from the castle, and as he passed the gate, he saw that the guard had the face of the very dervish with whom he had just spoken. Just outside the gates he met the Head Gardener, the Chef and the Abbot of the Monastery, and all the people he had met in this monastery. And they all had the same face - the face of the dervish he met on the side of the road, near the top of the hill, after leaving his mother's house.
“I will never understand this,” Anvar whispered to himself, but continued on his way.
When he looked back, he saw that the monastery was no longer there. And even the road lying in front of him changed. Instead of leading him back home, she led him in a completely different direction.
Anwar continued walking.
Many days later he entered a huge shining city and asked where he had gone.
“This,” said a passerby, “is the capital of the Empire, no less.”
Anwar asked him how many years had passed since he left the house, and the passer-by looked at him with a strange look.
“Only a year,” he said.
By Anwar's own calculations, he spent more than thirty years in the monastery, and he realized that time flows differently in different places.
In the very center of the city, Anwar saw a well and heard groans coming from there. A rope was lowered into the well, and Anwar began to pull it out. The crowd gathered around him to watch as he strained with all his strength to pull the rope, and he almost missed it, but the callus on his thumb prevented him from slipping.
Finally, a man appeared from the well. He thanked Anwar and said:
“You must be the man from Afar, about whom it was prophesied that only he could save me.” I am the Prime Minister of His Imperial Highness, imprisoned in this well by the Genie, and I will see to it that you are properly rewarded!
Having said this, he left.
Anwar did not have time to be properly surprised when suddenly a terrible and strange shadow jumped onto him.
- Yeah! - she said. “Son of Man, now you are my victim, and I will eat you alive, as I do with everyone I want in this city.” We are the genies, the masters of the streets of the capital, because no one is able to resist us, except the one who deserved the crystal lens of Suleiman, the son of David, who commanded all the genies on earth!
Hearing this, Anwar grabbed a crystal from his pocket and pointed it at the genie, which immediately crumbled into sparks and disappeared over the horizon.
Before the last sparks had time to melt in the air, a mounted messenger rode up to him and said:
- I am the emperor's herald! Know that it is predicted for us: whoever saves the minister will be able to defeat the genies. The same man has earned the key that opens the enchanted door behind which the Princess is languishing. Whoever opens this door will become the Princess's husband and inherit the Empire.
Anwar sat down behind the herald, and they hurried to the palace. There they walked to the door, and Anwar opened the enchanted door. It opened with a creak, and there he saw the most beautiful woman whom human eyes have seen. It was the Princess, and as soon as their eyes met, they fell in love.
So Anwar, a poor guy from the provinces, became the husband of Princess Salma, and also the Emperor (in his time). And he and his wife rule in that Empire to this day.
The story that the haughty prince told contained all the elements for a just and peaceful reign. And whenever they or their children or their country encountered new difficulties, they were found to have the “Ability That No One Has” because they used their experience and the magical objects given to them, and also took advantage of the advice of the mysterious dervish who came when needed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru