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

...and his children were playing in front of him. He looked at the ox and the donkey and heard the ox say to the donkey, "O Abu al-Yaqzan literally: Father of Wakefulness, a traditional name for the donkey, blessed is the comfort you have in what you are in, of rest, service, sweeping, and sprinkling under you. You have someone to serve you and feed you sifted barley and clear, cool water. As for me, they take me in the middle of the night and drag me, and they mount upon my neck man... something called the yoke and the plow. I work all day and split the earth and turn what I cannot bear. I endure the beating with the stick and the fatigue. My entrails flee, my neck is torn apart, and they use me from night until night. They take me out at night to the cattle house and throw before me beans with straw, and straw in its husk. I spend the night in filth and urine all night long. You remain in a sweep and a sprinkle, pleasant, with a clean manger full of straw, and you stand resting. Rarely, when our master the merchant has a need, he rides you in it and returns upon his tracks, while you are resting. I am tired while you are fresh, and I am sleepless." When the ox finished his speech, the donkey turned to him and said, apperi consi tit Likely corrupted Latin: "appear, let us take counsel" "O Yabous a nickname for the ox, what religion protects you, O father of the ox? You, O father of the ox, have no guile, nor cleverness, nor subtlety. You show counsel and exert * your soul and kill yourself for the rest of another. Have you not heard the proverb which says: 'Whoever lacks success turns his back on the path.' It is outside of etiquette that the cat referring to a feline predatory nature plays with the tools of war and killing. Until you are tied by the stick to the manger, you should scrape and stir with your horn, flee with your burden, and bray. They will not believe it until they throw you beans. Do not eat any of them, but rather smell them and retreat. Do not taste them, and be satisfied with the straw and hay. If you did this, it would be kinder to you and kinder, and you would see what rest you would find." The narrator said: When the ox heard the donkey's words, he knew that he was a counselor to him. He thanked him with his tongue, prayed for him, rewarded him well, and acknowledged his advice. He said to him, "You have been sufficient in deeds, O Abu al-Yaqzan." All of this passed, and the merchant knew what they were saying. When it was the second day, the plowman came to the merchant, took the ox, returned the plow to it, and used it. It slacked in its work and f-sa sepe Likely corrupted Latin: "he did often" the plowman grew angry. The ox had thought and accepted the donkey's advice, so the plowman followed him, but it did not...