We heard that you were going to feed all the animals in all the world , and my brothers sent me to ask when dinner would be ready . ' Suleiman-bin-Daoud was more surprised than ever and said , ' O Animal , you have eaten all the dinner that I made ready for all the animals in the world . ' And the Animal said , ' O King , live for ever , but do you really call that a dinner ? Where I come from we each eat twice as much as that between meals . ' Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud fell flat on his face and said , ' O Animal ! I gave that dinner to show what a great and rich king I was , and not because I really wanted to be kind to the animals . Now I am ashamed , and it serves me right . Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really truly wise man , Best Beloved . After that he never forgot that it was silly to show off ; and now the real story part of my story begins . He married ever so many wifes . He married nine hundred and ninety-nine wives , besides the Most Beautiful Balkis ; and they all lived in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely garden with fountains . He did n't really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives , but in those days everybody married ever so many wives , and of course the King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King . Some of the wives were nice , but some were simply horrid , and the horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too , and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud , and that was horrid for him . But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with Suleiman-bin-Daoud . She loved him too much . She sat in her rooms in the Golden Palace , or walked in the Palace garden , and was truly sorry for him . Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring on his finger and call up the Djinns and the Afrits they would have magicked all those nine hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome wives into white mules of the desert or greyhounds or pomegranate seeds ; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud thought that that would be showing off . So , when they quarrelled too much , he only walked by himself in one part of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished he had never been born . One day , when they had quarrelled for three weeks -- all nine hundred and ninety-nine wives together -- Suleiman-bin-Daoud went out for peace and quiet as usual ; and among the orange trees he met Balkis the Most Beautiful , very sorrowful because Suleiman-bin-Daoud was so worried . And she said to him , ' O my Lord and Light of my Eyes , turn the ring upon your finger and show these Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia and China that you are the great and terrible King . '
But XXXXX shook his head and said , ' O my Lady and Delight of my Life , remember the Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed before all the animals in all the world because I showed off .
Animal Djinns King Mesopotamia Persia Suleiman-bin-Daoud day pomegranate right wifes