THE BOOK OF THE
THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT.
(ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH.)
In the Name of Allah,
the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
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PRAISE BE TO ALLAH • THE BENEFICENT KING • THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE • LORD OF THE THREE WORLDS • WHO SET UP THE FIRMAMENT WITHOUT PILLARS IN ITS STEAD • AND WHO STRETCHED OUT THE EARTH EVEN AS A BED • AND GRACE, AND PRAYER – BLESSING BE UPON OUR LORD MOHAMMED • LORD OF APOSTOLIC MEN • AND UPON HIS FAMILY AND COMPANION-TRAIN • PRAYER AND BLESSINGS ENDURING AND GRACE WHICH UNTO THE DAY OF DOOM SHALL REMAIN • AMEN! • O THOU OF THE THREE WORLDS SOVEREIGN!
And afterwards. Verily the works and words of those gone before us have become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk may view what admonishing chances befel other folk and may therefrom take warning; and that they may peruse the annals of antique peoples and all that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and restrained:—Praise, therefore, be to Him who hath made the histories of the Past an admonition unto the Present! Now of such instances are the tales called "A Thousand
