ألف ليلة وليلة (Thousand and One Nights — 14th-15th century MS)

"And we shall never marry a woman again. As for me, I shall see what I must do." The narrator said, then they turned back on their tracks and did not see the king al-Intar-zali?. They reached their tents on the third day and entered their pavilion. They sat upon their royal throne, and the chamberlains, deputies, emirs, and ministers entered to King Shahryar. They congratulated him, and he ordered them to take off their robes and gave them gifts and bestowed honors upon them. He ordered the entry into the city, so they entered and he went up to his palace. He ordered his grand vizier, the father of the two maidens Dinarzad and Shahrazad, not to mention her, and said to him, "Take my bride and kill her." He entered to her, bound her, and gave her to the vizier. He took her out and killed her. King Shahryar took his sword, unsheathed it, entered his palace and inner chambers, and killed every maiden he had. He vowed to himself that he would never marry, but rather he would marry for only one night and in the morning kill the woman so that he might be safe from her evil and deception. He said, "There is not a free woman on the face of the earth except me." Then he prepared his brother Shahryar original text error, likely referring to Shah Zaman and sent him to his lands. He sent with him gifts, curiosities, wealth, and other things. He bade him farewell, and he traveled to his country. The narrator said, Shahryar sat and ordered his vizier, the father of the two maidens, to marry him to one of the daughters of the emirs. He married one of the daughters of the emirs, and Shahryar entered to her and satisfied his need with her. When the morning came, he ordered the vizier to kill her. Then he took another girl from the daughters of his troops for the night and lay with her, and in the morning ordered the vizier to kill her. He could not disobey him, so he killed her. Then on the third night, he took a girl from among some of the city's merchants and slept with her until the morning. He ordered him to kill her, and he killed her. The narrator said, King Shahryar continued to take a girl every night from the children of the merchants and the scholars, spend the night with them, and in the morning kill them until the girls were exhausted. The mothers wept, and the women, fathers, and parents cried out and began to pray against the king for calamities. They complained of him to the Creator of the heavens and sought help from the Hearer of voices and the Answerer of prayers. The narrator said, the vizier who killed the girls...