Supplemental Nights

To The Book Of The

Thousand Nights And A Night






The Say of Haykar the Sage.[FN#6]



In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate, the
Eternal One, the Termless, the Timeless, and of Him aidance we
await. And here we begin (with the assistance of Allah Almighty
and his fair furtherance) to invite the Story of Haykar the Sage,
the Philosopher, the Wazir of Sankharib[FN#7] the Sovran, and of
the son of the wise man's sister Nadan[FN#8] the Fool.

They relate that during the days of Sankharib the King, lord of
Asur[FN#9] and Naynawah,[FN#10] there was a Sage, Haykar hight,
Grand Wazir of that Sovran and his chief secretary, and he was a
grandee of abundant opulence and ampliest livelihood: ware was he
and wise, a philosopher, and endowed with lore and rede and
experience. Now he had interwedded with threescore wives, for
each and every of which he had builded in his palace her own