One morning, the king ordered his son to stand on the palace balcony and gather all the beautiful girls in the palace square. He was to throw an apple from his position, and if the apple hit one of the girls, she would become the expected bride. The beautiful girls were gathered in the palace square. The king’s son stood on the balcony and threw the apple, but a violent storm blew at that moment and carried it to a distant place on the seashore.
Then the king, his son, and the guards went to where the apple had fallen. When they arrived there, a girl came out of the sea, amazing everyone with her beauty, including the king himself. Everyone went to the palace with the sea girl. When the king’s son asked to marry her, the king refused, for he wanted her for himself. He began to procrastinate, saying: This is a small girl who doesn’t know how to do anything.
The truth was that she was very intelligent and performed her duties perfectly. The girl hated the old king, refused to marry him, loved his young son, desired to marry him, and didn’t hide that. When he insisted on marrying the girl, his father, the old king, said to him: I will ask you for three things. If you do them, I will marry you to the girl. The prince said: And what are those things? The old king said: Bring me grape clusters that everyone in the palace can eat from and be satisfied.
The girl was listening to the conversation and quickly said to the prince: Go to where you found me on the beach, call my sister Salihah, and ask her for the required grape clusters. The youth went and did as she said and came back with the grape clusters. Everyone in the palace ate from them and was satisfied. Then the old king said: The second thing is that you bring me a silk carpet in your hand’s grasp that covers the palace’s rooms and courtyard. The youth talked to the girl about that, and she asked him to go to her sister Salihah to bring the carpet. The youth did likewise. When he returned, he spread the carpet and covered the palace’s ground and courtyard with it. The prince said to his elderly father: And what is your last request, O father?
He said: I want you to bring a three-day-old child who tells a story that begins with a lie and ends with a lie. The prince asked: A three-day-old child who tells a story that begins with a lie and ends with a lie? The old man said: Yes, this is the last request. The prince quickly went to Salihah and found her in labor. She ordered him to wait a little until the birth was complete and the child nursed. Then she followed him with the child to the palace.
There, the child approached the old king before a large crowd of people and said: I will recite to your ears a true story that happened to me. When I was on the first day of my life, I bought a piece of land and planted it with sesame, but people told me sesame isn’t useful, so I planted watermelon instead. So I collected the sesame myself and put it in bags. I distributed its place with watermelon.
But people returned and said watermelon isn’t useful, so I planted wheat instead. Then I collected the watermelon seeds myself and returned them all to bags. I planted wheat in their place. But people returned and said. Then the old king shouted at him: Liar! You can’t do these works.
Here the crowd shouted: Enough, O king. Your three conditions have been fulfilled, and you must now marry the prince to the beautiful girl. The old man was extremely angry and soon fainted and died. Then the prince married the girl and became king. The king, queen, and people lived in the most comfortable state.