“They say,” began the padishah’s wife, “that the great padishah lived in a beautiful palace.” One day a dervish came to him and said:
- Oh check! I know one extraordinary spell. As soon as I say it, my soul can immediately move into any dead body.
The Shah ordered to bring a slaughtered goose and said:
“Come on, let’s see if your soul can transfer into this goose?”
The dervish whispered a spell. Immediately his soul moved into the goose, the goose came to life and cackled, and the dervish’s body became lifeless.
When the Shah saw all this, he was very surprised. And the dervish cast the same spell again, and his soul again moved into his body. According to the dervish, the Shah immediately learned this spell by heart.
A few days later, the Shah and his vizier went hunting. They killed a doe. The Shah, in the presence of the vizier, cast a spell, and his soul moved into the killed animal. The doe came to life, but the body of the Shah remained lifeless. Then the Shah again cast this magic spell, and his soul returned to his body again.
The amazed vizier asked the shah how he knew such a spell.
“I learned it from one dervish,” answered the Shah.
- Teach me this spell too! - the vizier began to beg.
He asked the Shah for a long time, and he eventually fulfilled his request.
One day the Shah took the vizier with him and went for a walk. On the way, they saw a dead parrot under a tree.
- Oh Shah, can you really be incarnated into this parrot? - asked the vizier.
The Shah immediately cast a spell, and his soul moved into the body of the parrot. The parrot flew up and sat on a tree.
Then the vizier, without wasting a minute, cast the same spell, and his soul was transferred into the body of the Shah. Then he cast a spell over one of his servants, and he turned into a vizier.
And the Shah, who turned into a parrot, remained sitting on the tree. Only now did he understand all the vizier’s cunning and repented of having taught him a magic spell. But nothing could be done.
The Shah had a garden not far from those places. He flew into this garden and sat down, saddened, on the branch of some tree.
The vizier, having assumed the guise of the Shah, returned to the palace and, as if nothing had happened, approached the Shah’s wife. At night they drank wine together and had fun. And when morning came, the vizier approached the throne, sat on it and began to govern the state.
Then he returned to the Shah's wife again. And she, watching her husband, noticed with surprise how all his habits and movements had changed.
Now let's talk about the parrot.
One day a parrot flew to the gardener and said in a human voice:
- Go to the city and sell me. The money you get from the sale will bring you happiness.
The gardener put the parrot in a cage, took it to the city and began to offer it to rich people. Everyone who heard the parrot talking was amazed, came up to the cage, started talking and joked with the bird. The parrot was asked questions, and he answered them.
There lived a certain woman in this city. She took a thousand gold pieces from everyone she spent the night with. And then one day she dreamed that she spent the whole night until the morning in a pleasant conversation with a Khoja she knew. In the morning she went to this hoja.
“You spent the whole of this night until the morning with me.” For this you owe me a thousand gold pieces. Give me my money! she demanded.
A quarrel began between them. This happened on the street, and a parrot heard their squabble.
- Come here. “I will resolve your dispute,” he said. Khoja and the woman approached him. A lot of people gathered around. The parrot listened to the explanations of both and said to the hoja:
- Go home, put a thousand gold pieces in your wallet, take a mirror with you and bring it all here.
Khoja went and brought a wallet and a mirror and gave them to the parrot. He put the wallet in front of the mirror so that the reflection of the wallet appeared in the mirror. Everyone looked in surprise at what the parrot would do next.
- What do you want from this Hodja? - the parrot asked the woman.
“I want a thousand gold pieces,” she answered.
“Come here,” said the parrot, “and take a thousand gold pieces from the wallet that you see in the mirror.” This money will be your payment.
-What kind of speech is this? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?! — the woman was indignant.
“I judged correctly,” said the parrot. “The payment for such a conversation as you had with the Khoja can only be the gold that you see in the mirror.” If you agree to this payment, take it, and if not, then you will not receive any other money.
Everyone present approved of the parrot's decision.
“We swear by Allah, the parrot’s words contain the truth itself,” they said around.
The woman was ashamed and left.
Then the gardener announced that he wanted to sell the parrot. And while the Khojas were preparing for the bargain, the parrot turned to the gardener:
- Tell them that you are selling your parrot for as much gold as it weighs.
The rumor about the wonderful parrot reached the Shah's wife.
“Let them buy it for me,” she ordered.
And they bought her a parrot, paying a lot of money for it.
The padishah's wife ordered the cage with the parrot to be hung in the palace. From time to time she approached the parrot and talked to him.
As night fell, the vizier came to the shah's wife; they drank, ate and were merry. The Shah, in the guise of a parrot, looked at all this from his cage, sighed deeply and thought: “Ah, vizier, vizier! Will Allah not give me a chance to settle accounts with you?”
And then one day the vizier, having fun with the shah’s wife, said to her:
- I know one miraculous spell with the help of which my soul can move into any dead body.
Then the Shah's wife ordered the slaughtered goose to be brought and said:
“If what you said is true, let your soul enter the body of this goose.”
The vizier cast a magic spell - and immediately his soul entered the body of the goose, which began to walk around the room, cackling. Seeing this, the Shah quickly cast the same spell and again took on his previous appearance. He rushed at the goose, grabbed it by the throat and, squeezing it tightly with his hands, beat it against the walls until it gave up the ghost.
The Shah's wife, seeing all these transformations, gasped in amazement. And the Shah told her everything that happened to him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru