Yasmine the Wise and Clever

by Norman A. Rubin

Norman A. Rubin
POB 1020
Afula 18550 Israel

Yasmin the Wise and Clever - Norman A. Rubin

There was once in the antiquity of time and the passage of the age and moment, in the golden city of Basrah lived a sultan who was very proud of his clever wits and in the spelling of riddles. After the Divan of justice he would call in his ministers and jest with them in his witticism and puzzling words. Potentates from all the world came to challenge him in wits and puzzles, but the sultan beset them all.

Despite the pride, the sultan, Prince Taj al-Muluk was richly endowed with the gifts of justice and generosity, prudence and learning. He was master of armies and auxiliaries, of hundreds of faithful slaves and enuchs, a harem of a thousand concubines and a dutiful following of loyal ministers.

"His exquisite manners and tact,
Have made him the trusted of royalty,
He is one that knew of muscle and mane,
Bearded darkly in wisdom,
Vigourous in supple youth."

For many years Prince Taj al-Maluk governed wisely and he was reknown for his fair rule which endeared the love of his people. But one thing he lacked, was the joy of a wife who comforted him with love, and sweet children that offered deep affection.

It came to pass that one day his lonliness for a faithful woman weighed upon him deeply, so he called to him his wazir, who followed him in generosity and goodness. The royal liege spoke unto him saying that it is written 'to couple and mutiply' but my loins bear no fruit that honours me with a heir in my name. Princesses and houris have paraded before my eyes, each like bodies of silk, pure and restful like water, and to be with them a night was a pleasure. Yet, my heart did not feel their love. Advise me, O wazir."

Then the wazir replied, "It is a very difficult and delicate question to ponder. I shall attempt to satisfy you wishes without transgression on propriety. If you will listen to the advice of my beard, you will choose the fairest of women who is clever as you are in wits. One whose beauty as well her witticism shall be an example to all women of your kingdom.

Prince Taj al-Muluk rejoiced at the deep wisdom of his wise and esteemed wazir; he immediately issued a proclamation to the fact that was heralded throughout the fair city. The sultan welcomed the many sloe-eyed beauties with submissive bodies into his chambers in order to test them of their witticism. After the delightful entrance to their garden of love, the prince whispered a clever riddle with a kiss to their tender ears, but the pouting lips from the silken creatures did not give the clever answer. And the search carried on!

Now, one bright day when Prince Taj al-Muluk stopped at an inn after inspecting the splendor of his armies, he overheard the portly inkeeper boasting of his daughter Yasmin who was so clever she could solve any riddle. The sultan frowned when he heard these words and he ordered his wazir to bring forth this elder.

The innkeeper scraped and bowed before the sultan, but before he was able to offer the hospitality of his hostel to the lineage of the throne, he heard the angry voice of the sultan. "I don't like liars," Prince Taj al-Muluk told the trembling hostler. "I will ask you three riddles. Now if your daughter Yasmin can solve them, you will be well rewarded with gold and silver, but if she fails you shall loose your inn and you and your family will be banished from my kingdom.

"Now my boastful friend these are the three riddles. First - what is the fastest thing? Second- what is the richest thing? Third - what is the dearest thing?" To-morrow you will come to the palace and give me the right answers or else! Then with a swish to his cloak he left the inn in the tramp of his boots, arm and arm with his wazir.

Sadly, the miserable innkeeper closed his inn early and dragged his feet through the dust to his home. No goodly wife greeted him as she had been brought to paradise upon the judgement for her soul by the All-seeing and All-knowing. Only his lovely daughter Yasmin was there to welcome the saddened man to his home.

"She comes, a torch in the shadows, and it is day,
Her light lights more brightly than the rising dawn.
The sun leaps out from her eternal beauty,
And stars are born in the smiling of her eyes."

Dear Yasmin saw the sadness in the shaded eyes of her poor father and she inquired of his dismal countenance. With the bitterness of his tongue, the innkeeper told all that has happened. He told of his meeting with Prince Taj al-Muluk, the riddles that was placed before him, and the consequences of failure.

"You will not lose the inn, nor will we be banished from the kingdom, as I have the answers to these three simple riddles. Go to his royal highness to-morrow after the Divan, the Court of Justice and tell him that,"thought is the fastest thing, life-giving Earth is the richest thing, and love is the dearest thing.

When the innkeeper was led into the palace he was led into the main hall where he saw a tall throne of white marble encrusted with pearls and diamonds. On this throne was a huge cushion of green silk with tassels, fringes of yellow silk, and balls of red gold. Above the throne was a canopy, gleaming with gold interlaced in rich embroidered cloth, and upon this throne sat the sultan, Prince Taj al-Muluk. His faithful wazir standing alongside.

The innkeeper bowed respectfully to his majesty. Then with the tremble to his lips he fowarded the solution to the riddles. When Prince Taj al-Muluk heard the answers he frowned deeply. He vowed to his Wazir that he will wed anywone as clever and witty as he. He thought, "Could that girl be Yasmin, a common innkeeper's daughter?"

"The sultan called to the shaking innkeeper in the temper of his voice, "If Yasmin is as clever as she seems, I wish to meet her alone with no one to accompany her. She must come to my palace in three days - but she must come neither walking nor riding, neither dressed nor undressed, and bringing a gift that is not a gift. Off with her pretty head if she fails." Upon this note the innkeeper was dismissed.

Sadly the innkeeper dragged his feet once again through the dust as he made his way to his humble home. He had lost his wife to the Eternal one, blessed be his Name; and now he might loose Yasmin his beautiful daughter to the greater powers. He was sure that his daughter would not bring herself to the king as commanded.

When Yasmin saw the depression on the creased face of her father, she inquired of his bad disposition. Where upon the good man wailed out an answer and his fears. But Yasmin thought for a minute or more, and then she smiled, "don't worry dear father I know what to do. Please buy me a goat, a fishnet, and... hmm.. two caged doves."

The innkeeper was bewildered by the strange request but did as he was asked. And on the third day Yasmin wrapped the fishnet on her slim and gracious figure and sat on the goat with a shapely leg that dragged on the ground. Then fair Yasmin, clutching the cage of the doves in the tenderness of her hand, set off for the palace of her illustrious sultan. Her father was near her as a guide and protector till they reached the tall gates of the palace. And Yasmin alone and unafraid made her way past the tall guards to the throne room.

"I'm Yasmin, the innkeper's daughter, she told Prince Taj al-Muluk after she made her obiesance to him. "I've come to you neither riding nor walking, as you can see. With this fishnet wrapped around me, I'm neither dressed nor undressed.

The sultan started to smile, "And my dear Yasmin, what is a gift that is not a gift?"

"Here!"

Yasmin released the two doves from the cage. Before the sultan could catch them, they fluttered out of the window. Then Prince Taj al-Muluk burst out in a hearty laugh and said , "That was most certainly a gift that was not a gift."

Now Yasmin was as beautiful as she was clever. Upon the command of the king the goat was removed from the great hall. In the solitary quiet of the hour Yasmin uncovered herself from the fishnet and she saw the delighted gaze of the sultan upon her.

"Looked up and saw a lily so white.
A girl, with tender grace.
Such bright tint of breast and face,
So curved and delicate of limb.."

Then Prince Taj al-Muluk took her by her delicate hand and led her through the richly decorated halls of his palace to an arbor of love hung over with silk and gold brocade. A soft bed encircled with lines of diamonds and pearls and covered with satin offered its invitation.

Yasmin the beautiful and wise was lifted on its softness. She spread herself on its smoothness with the white of her thighs open and ready for the thrust of the lance of the young sultan. Her husky voice called endearingly to Prince Taj al-Muluk:

"Your brawny body is like a stately palm.
Palms must be open to their strength indeed,
And you my wise one must be naked indeed."

The sultan's journey into Yasmin's garden of bliss was heavenly from the touch of the rose tipped ivory hills, along the vale of her jewelled navel, and to the entrance to the fruitful garden. And the liege forgot about being proud when he saw Yasmin was as beautiful as he was handsome. They looked at each other once, and they liked what they saw. They looked at each other twice, and Prince Taj el-Muluk forgot that he was the sultan and she was the innkeeper's daughter.

They looked at each other for the third time and the prince softly spoke to the fair maiden, "I want to marry a clever girl, but you are not only clever but a pleasure to my eyes. My dear Yasmin, would you give me your hand in the sacred vows?"

Yasmin happily agreed and sealed it with her lips to the royal's lips.

But, the sultan remembered his pride and he told Yasmin, "You must never disagree with any of the judgements I make at the Divan. My word is law and must be obeyed!" And Yasmin agreed to the words.

Later the king sent for the kadis and witnessess. When the marriage contract was drawn between the sultan and Yasmin, the clever and wise innkeeper's daughter, Prince Taj al-Muluk sealed the document with a kiss. The happy couple then received congratulations and blessings from all. Thereupon the good people of the city of Basrah rejoiced, and they witnessed the endearing bliss in the coming contented lives of the royal couple.

Through the ensuing days, weeks and months Prince Taj al-Muluk forgot about his pride. But one day dear Yasmin saw a peasant with a dismal look to his creased face and she inquired of his miserable disposition.

The peasant made his obiensance to her and voiced his complaint, "I own a mare that gave birth under neighbor's wagon. So the sultan ruled at the Divan that since the foal gave birth under the good fellow's wagon, the little animal was his by right.

"Why that's not fair in the judgement," cried Yasmin the wise. Then she ordered the peasant to stand under the balcony to the sultan's window with a slender bamboo rod with an attached piece of fine twine. "You must pretend you are fishing," were her last words of instructions.

The peasant immediately obeyed his sultana and stood under the balcony of the sultan's window. He then called out 'fishes, fishes' and cast the line. Prince Taj al-Muluk hear the cry of a fisherman and he peered outside and saw the the peasant below his balcony.

The sultan called out angrily to him as to the disturbance to his rest. When he saw the slender rod and twine in his hands he enquired of his strange movements and calls.

"Fishing, your majesty!"

Prince Taj al-Muluk asked how he could catch fish on a marble pavement. The peasant answered as Yasmin instructed him, "If a wagon can give birth to a foal, than I can catch fish on a stone floor.?"

When the sultan heard this clever answer he reversed his judgement and rewarded the peasant with the foal. But he knew the peasant was not clever in in his wits and that only his Yasmin could have have given the reply. His pride overpowered his love for her.

Prince al-Muluk's anger increased as he awaited the presence of Yasmin in his chambers. With fiery word he accused her of breaking her promise in interfering in the matters of his Divan. "You must leave the palace. You must leave on the tide of the evening! But outside of your robes you may take only your dearest possession with you."

Yasmin did not weep or wail on those bad tiding. She waited till the dusk of evening and with stealth entered the sultan's chambers.Quietly she went to a small side table with a cotton covered silver goblet set on a fine damask cloth. She lifted a corner of the cloth and slipped a sleeping potion into the sultan's evening's drink of scented cocoa. Then she quickly left the bed chamber.

Later Yasmin returned to the bedroom and saw that Prince Taj al-Muluk was deep in a drugged sleep. Yasmin then uncovered the sultan from the satin of his robe with his manly jewels shining to the delight of her bright eyes. Then she wound his naked body in a thick blanket and with the strength of love she heaved it over her soft shoulders.

She then carried the bundled sultan through the corridors of the palace. The guards, remembering what Prince Taj al-Muluk had said of her banishment did not challenge her. They, in their dim wits, thought Yasmin was carrying her deep treasure.

Yasmin's flight was off short duration as on the outskirts of Basrah was small oasis, verdant and lush. There, she tenderly laid the precious bundle on the green grass and opened the manly body of the sultan to the cool of the winds.

Prince Taj al-Muluk awoke the next morning to the song of birds, finding himself in nature's covering on a wool blanket under the shade of a palm. Lying next to him was Yasmin in nakedness, cooler and brighter than a flowing stream; her body, moulded in desire and scented in jasmine, was bewitching to his sight.

Prince Taj al-Muluk then called sternly to her, "What am I doing here... and in full display?"

Yasmin awoke and smiled gently to him, "My dear prince, I was only following the edicts of my banishment. That I was told that I could take my dearest possession and dressed only in my robes. And that, my love is you in all your form without a stitch!"

Prince Taj al-Muluk looked passionately into Yasmin's warm eyes. And as he looked, he forgot all about his pride, this time forever.

Then with a humble heart he begged her forgiveness, which she sealed by a fond kiss to his hand. And she promised never again will she interfered in his judgement at the Divan.

Prince Taj -al-Muluk embraced her supple body in the judicious passion of his love. His lips and tongue decreed her buds of beauty to rise in his ruling. Then with the power of his hard and just staff he pronounced the order. He then concluded the matter with a final thrust to his shrew decision. Yasmin took his ruling ecstatically with great joy to his wise and loving way of judgement.

Then under the cool breeze blowing on the white of her fair skin, Yasmin turned and faced her beloved. She looked deeply into the prince's eyes and asked:

"It has twelve branches.
On every branch are four twigs.
On every twig are seven leaves.
What is it?"

*The Year