In “The Fisherman and the Jinni”, the second top-level story told by Sheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights, an old, poor fisherman casts his net exactly four times a day. One day his first catch is a dead donkey, then a pitcher full of dirt, then shards of pottery and glass. On his fourth and final try, he calls upon the name of God and casts his net. When he pulls it up he finds a copper jar with a cap that has the seal of Solomon on it. He removes the cap. A plume of smoke comes out of the jar and condenses into an Ifrit (a more powerful, malevolent jinni). The fisherman is frightened, although initially the jinni does not notice him. The jinni thinks that Solomon has come to kill him. When the fisherman tells him that Solomon had been dead for many centuries, the Jinni is overjoyed and grants the fisherman a choice of the manner of his death. The fisherman must figure out a way to avoid this fate, which leads to a talking fish, a Sultan, and another tale about a black lake.
Appearance List Literary: One Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights with first English-language edition c. 1706–1721, The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales by Smith, Wiggin, and Parrish (1909) [Library of Congress], et. al.
Sample Read The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales by Smith, Wiggin, and Parrish [PG]
Description In “The Fisherman and the Jinni”, the second top-level story told by Sheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights, an old, poor fisherman casts his net exactly four times a day. One day his first catch is a dead donkey, then a pitcher full of dirt, then shards of pottery and glass. On his fourth and final try, he calls upon the name of God and casts his net. When he pulls it up he finds a copper jar with a cap that has the seal of Solomon on it. He removes the cap. A plume of smoke comes out of the jar and condenses into an Ifrit (a more powerful, malevolent jinni). The fisherman is frightened, although initially the jinni does not notice him. The jinni thinks that Solomon has come to kill him. When the fisherman tells him that Solomon had been dead for many centuries, the Jinni is overjoyed and grants the fisherman a choice of the manner of his death. The fisherman must figure out a way to avoid this fate, which leads to a talking fish, a Sultan, and another tale about a black lake.
