Each pleasure that does not forward the soul to God is not so much as a pleasure as a calamity.

One Thousand and One Nights is a medieval Middle-Eastern literary work that consists of a number of stories being told by Queen Scheherazade to her mad husband, King Shahryar.

Frame story

Scheherazade … had read much, and had so admirable a memory, that she never forgot any thing she had read. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, medicine, history, and the liberal arts; and her poetry excelled the compositions of the best writers of her time.

The History of Aladdin

  • "Who will change old lamps for new ones? New lamps for old?"

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

  • "Open Sesame!"

Tale of Zummurud and Ali-Shar

  • When I was alive
    I was dust which was,
    But now I am dust in dust
    I am dust which never was.
  • On the black road of life think not to find
    Either a friend or lover to your mind;
    If you must love, oh then, love solitude,
    For solitude alone is true and kind.

Tale of King Umar al-Numan

  • Maslamah ibn Dinar said: "Each pleasure that does not forward the soul to God is not so much as a pleasure as a calamity."
  • I hope that Allah will not make me immortal, for death is his greatest gift to any true believer.
  • Each man envies, the strong openly, the weak in secret.

Quotes about One Thousand and One Nights

  • It is a book so vast that it is not necessary to have read it, for it is a part of our memory.
  • I'd like every single Arab to read One Thousand and One Nights. They [would] learn a lot from them, especially [because] these stories were written away from the influence of religion. It's interesting to see how we were open, how we had a dialogue with each other, how we wanted to understand, how we respected each other. There was a great dignity, and I'd like this to be restored again.
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