79-2 - Uns
Al-Vajood and the Vazeer's Daughter Al-Vard Fil-Akmaam:
Uns in Search of Rose
In
despair Uns al-Vajood fell in a swoon. He lay down, he did not know for
how long. When he came into senses he found himself alone so he got afraid
of wild beasts. He climbed up a tree on the mountain. Here he heard a
voice of a man coming out from a cave. He listened to it and that was the
voice of a devotee. He came down from the tree and knocked on the cave
door but nobody answered, nor anybody came outside. So he again got sad
and read some verses.
As he
finished his verses, the door of the cave opened and he heard someone say,
"Alas, The pity of it." He entered the cave and greeted the
devotee. He asked him - "What is your name?" "Uns al Vajood."
"And why have you come here?" So he told him his story. The
hermit wept and said - "I have been living her for the past 20 years
but I have never seen any man around until yesterday when I heard the
sounds of lamentations, and looking towards the direction of the sound,
saw many people pitching tents. At once they built a ship and some of them
embarked the ship and sailed through. Then some of them returned, broke
the ship and went their way. And I suspect that you are not seeking the
people who embarked and returned by the ship." Then the hermit
embraced him and both wept together. After a while Uns said - "This very
night, I will pray to God and ask his direction you should do to
attain your desire."
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When
Rose was set in her castle, seeing it she wept. Seeing birds on the island
she asked her people to catch the birds and put all of them in cages. But
then she again started weeping.
Meanwhile
the hermit said to Uns, "Go down to the palm grove in the valley and
fetch some fiber. So he went and came back with palm fiber. The hermit
twisted it, made a rope and then a net from the rope. Then he said to Uns
- "There grows a gourd, which springs up and dries upon its roots, in
the heart of the valley. So go there and fill this sack with it, then tie
it together and casting it into the water, ride upon that and make into
the midst of the sea. Hopefully your wish will be fulfilled."
He did
the same. After getting into the sea, the wind rose and he disappeared
from the sight of the hermit. After a long time his fate cast him on the
shore of the Mount of the Bereft Mother. He was very tired, hungry and
thirsty. He ate some fruits, drank some water and walked a little till he
saw something white. He made for it and found that it was a castle. He
went to its gate and found it locked. He sat there for three days then its
gate opened and an eunuch came out and he found Uns seated there.
He
asked him - "Where have you come from, and who brought you
here?" He said - "From Isfaahaan. I was voyaging with
merchandise when my ship was wrecked and the waves cast me upon the
farther side of the island." At this the eunuch embraced him and wept
- "Allaah preserve you. Isfaahaan is my country too. And I have a
cousin there, the daughter of my father's brother, whom I loved from
childhood. But a person stronger than me fell upon us and took me as the
sign of victory and made me eunuch and sold me to a male singer."
Then
he took Uns inside the castle. There he saw many birds shut in cages. He came to
a cage in which a wood-carver was shut. He read a few verses to him, so he
woke up and spoke in human voice. He recited some couplets. Uns asked the
eunuch - "What place is this? Who built it and who lives in it?" The
eunuch said - "The Vazeer of such and such King has built it to guard
his daughter, fearing for her the accidents of Time and the incidents of
Destiny. We do not open it except once a year when her provision
comes in." Uns al-Vajood said to himself - "It is my good luck,
otherwise I would have waited for long."
Rose
did not like anything and she wandered around in all the corners of the castle
but could not find anything to go out, so she shed tears. Then she read
some verses and went on the terrace of the castle in her very rich clothes
and jewelry. She took some clothes, tied their ends together to make a
long rope and came down on the ground and started wandering around till
she saw a fisherman. When he saw her, he got afraid and wanted to run away
from her, but she called him by sign. When he came she read some verses to
him. Hearing them he also wept with her and read a few couplets to her.
After
he read his couplets, he said to her - "Come in my boat, I will take
you wherever you want to go." So she sat in his boat and the boat
sailed. Soon strong winds started blowing and it got disappeared from the
sight of the shore. The wind blew for three days and the fisherman did not
know where he was going to. At last it stopped at a shore where a city was
situated. Its King was a Prince whose name was Dirbaas. By chance, at that
time he was sitting at a window with his son looking out at the sea.
So
they saw a fishing boat making the landing. They saw a young beautiful
lady in the boat. The Prince knew through her attire that she should be
the daughter of some King. He went there and found the lady asleep and the
fisherman was making fast to shore. The Prince woke the lady up, and
as she woke up she started weeping. The Prince asked her whose daughter
she was, she said - "I am the daughter of Ibraaheem, the daughter of
the Vazeer of the King Shaamikh. The manner of my coming here is wondrous
and the cause is marvelous." And she told him the whole story.
The
Prince comforted her - "Don't worry, no harm will come to you and I
will try to fulfill your wishes." He went to his troops, summoned his
Vazeer, asked him to pack lots of treasures and carry it to the King
Shaamikh and say to him - "You must send the person named Uns al-Vajood
and say that the King wants to ally himself with you by marrying his
daughter to Uns al-Vajood." So you must send him to me so that the
marriage may be solemnized in her father's kingdom." Then he wrote a
letter to the King of this matter, gave it to his Vazeer charging him to
bring al-Vajood with him.
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