Whether it was or not, a long time ago, when I was rocking my mother’s cradle, there lived a padishah. That padishah raised three sons and a daughter. He loved children more than his power. He doesn’t need the whole world, he wouldn’t exchange them for anything. For a mother, sons were sweeter than honey, and daughters were like cream to honey. She just didn’t have to enjoy them, her honey and cream - she died. The palace was dressed in mourning. And then the black vizier said to the padishah:
- Oh my padishah! The darkness of dark days will not last forever! Children need a kind mother, so that she can radiate light from all ten fingers.
The vizier dressed up and decorated his black daughter and gave her to the padishah. He gave it away, but from what finger can light flow from her, if all ten fingers of the daughter of the black vizier are black! Allah, do not let us experience their evil! Previously, she smiled even at slaves, now her time has come, and she has planted a black spot on each of them with various tricks and tricks. The orphan suffered the most, the orphan had the worst of all... She became blacker than black - you can’t even wash it off with water from forty rivers. No wonder they teach: slander is as dangerous as mountain rapids! The stepmother disgraced the orphan even in the eyes of her own father and achieved - the padishah drove his daughter away from him.
Drive away - drive away, but will siblings really separate? At night, with their heads bowed to each other, they grieved together... One day, the stepmother crept up to the door and overheard. Like a raven, she pounced on them:
- Oh, woe to me, have you gathered together again and are conspiring against me? Wait, here I will dance for you, so that fate smiles on you!
And it turns out that the ten fingers of the black vizier’s daughter were not just black fingers, they could do magical things... And early in the morning all three brothers turned into birds and flew up! And their sister with a black fate did not know where to go from grief. He looks at the sky, waits, but there is no sound of wings, no breathing of brothers. All the birds returned to their nests, but they were still gone. The palace became a black dungeon for her.
“Either I will go around all the mountains and find them, or I will die. What good did I see when I was born into this world? Should I be afraid of death? - she thought and in the evening, into impenetrable darkness, she set off on the road. You never know whether you walked or walked a lot, through the mountains, through the valleys, she walked for six months and one autumn and reached the top of the mountain. She asked both black and white birds about her brothers, but no one could answer her. They flew away one after another, leaving neither a memory, nor a feather, nor a word about themselves. And when snow fell on the mountains, tears flowed from the sister’s eyes. She cried bitterly. But will the vizier’s daughter hear and take pity, so that her happiness turns into misfortune?..
The orphan looked around, and what would you think? Three birds, all three white, are circling above her head! She raised her arms like a tree's branches, but the birds continued to circle, and not one of them flew up and sat on her branch.
Witchcraft! Their stepmother turned them into such birds that only at sunset, when everything around was covered in darkness, did their human appearance return to them. The sun appears in the sky, the earth is illuminated with rays, they spread their wings and fly up!
By nightfall, the three birds became young men, and the sister recognized them as her brothers. They began to kiss and hug each other with joy, and then began to pour out all their sorrows and sorrows in tears. They spent the whole night like this.
And when dawn broke, the three brothers said to her:
“Sister, we will make a home for ourselves in places where neither a bird will fly nor a caravan will pass.” On the other side of the mountain there is a lake, and in the middle of the lake there is an island, and in the very middle of the island there is a house full of the aroma of pine trees and the chirping of birds! At dawn we will take you on our wings and fly to the island. Don't be afraid, we won't drop you, don't think about it: our wings are the wings of brothers, not the hands of a stepmother!
This is how they thanked their sister Sedef for her loyalty.
Early in the morning, three brothers, turning into three birds, joined their wings. The sister flew up on top of them, like on a carpet... Before she had time to close and open her eyes, they reached the island! And the place is heavenly, but the sister did not look at the trees spreading their branches, did not touch the fruits, sweet as honey... Only the brothers, flapping their wings, soared into the sky, she entered the lake. Water relieved him of illness and calmed his grief. With the words “Purity, whiteness!” Sister Sedef sank into the water. There was no trace of blackness left on either the cheeks or the forehead! And when the bird brothers, returning from afar, saw her whiter than milk, purer than water, there was no end to their joy:
- Sister, sister, whiter than white sister! If Allah healed the wounds inflicted on you by your stepmother, He will also rid us of the bird's feathers, then we will spend our whole lives in this emerald palace in jubilation!
They rejoiced until sleep overtook them and they went to bed.
They say whatever hopes a person lies down with will come true in a dream. My sister dreamed about one of the seven saints or the forty blessed ones.
“My daughter,” he said, “if you knit shirts from grass and put them on your brothers, then Almighty Allah will remove the witchcraft from them, and they will become people again.” But just remember - until you finish your work, you should not talk to anyone. If you can restrain yourself, say “Bismillah” and get to work!
Sister Sedef woke up and is afraid to believe her dream. Is it possible to waste time now, to miss such an opportunity! As soon as the brothers flew away, she picked grass and began knitting shirts. In the evening the brothers returned and asked Sedef what she was knitting, but her sister remained silent. The brothers were scared:
“The hand of the black witch stepmother can reach everything, her tongue can reach anywhere.” The blackness has disappeared from the sister’s face, and now she has injured her tongue with her witchcraft!
And they began to fly like bees from flower to flower, collecting medicinal herbs. And the sister continued to knit without saying a word.
Let the bird brothers look for healing for their sister, they don’t know about her dream!
Somehow, a horseman appeared in those parts - the son of a padishah. He saw Sedef, drove up to her and began to ask:
- What mountain are you a rose from, what garden is a nightingale from?
But he also achieved nothing. He looked and said to himself: “Echo peri!” He looked again and said: “It’s dumb!” The son of the padishah fell in love with Sedef and decided not to postpone the wedding. He put the girl on a horse and set off.
On the way, three birds flew towards them. They began to circle overhead, as if wanting to shelter them from the sun... The son of the padishah was surprised. He didn’t know that the three birds were the girl’s three brothers... Well, we drove, drove through mountains and valleys, before evening had come, we reached the palace.
Will the padishah contradict his son when such joy awaits him?.. That same evening they beat the drums and began to feast. Only Sedef did not dress up, did not decorate herself with necklaces: she knitted loop after loop, shirt after shirt, so that her dream would come true.
And one of the servants, it turns out, was spying on her and reported everything to the padishah. One evening the padishah said to his son:
- Your chosen one is not a peri and not a simple girl. She's a witch, a sorceress! During the day, three birds fly to her and knock on her window, and in the evenings they call her to the garden. She goes out at these hours and, having collected herbs, returns - who knows what evil she is preparing for you! The son of the padishah did not believe, did not listen to slander, but decided to see everything with his own eyes. He spent three days and three nights in the garden where Sedef met with her brothers and collected grass. The son of the padishah hung his head, and they began to interrogate the girl. The poor thing didn’t stop knitting, she silently shed tears. Yes, but who will take into account her tears?.. If she is silent, she agrees!
- Let the beauty be destroyed by her beauty! - They said so and decided to cut off her head.
The executioner raised the ax:
- Say your last wish! He is silent, knitting.
- Then get ready! - said the executioner. The girl didn’t give up knitting either.
The executioner swung, but then three birds appeared and began circling above her head. The executioner did not have time to lower the ax: the girl finished knitting shirts and threw them on the birds. O Almighty Allah, all three birds turned into horsemen, slender as reeds. They hugged their sister, and those who saw this, probably mistaking everything for witchcraft, froze in surprise.
And then Sedef’s lips opened and she said:
“Executioner, your scaffold will not run away, take me to the padishah!” I'll tell him everything. If he orders me to be executed again, then I am ready to put my head under your ax.
Her executioner listened. With tears in her eyes, she told the padishah about her stepmother’s machinations.
The padishah sees that the girl Sedef is purer than an emerald, he took her hand and took her to his son. And he gave his daughters to her brothers. The wedding lasted forty days and forty nights. Their stepmother, the daughter of the black vizier, was either torn into forty pieces, or chopped into forty pieces. Yes, yes, evil is punished, but good deeds triumph. We can leave now. Three more apples fell from the sky, this is for those who do not defame others!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru