When the smoke was all out of the vessel, it reunited and became a solid body, of which was formed a genie twice as high as the greatest of giants. At the sight of a monster of such an unwieldy bulk, the fisherman would fain have fled, but was so frightened, that he could not move. “Solomon,” cried the genie immediately, “Solomon, the great prophet, pardon, pardon; I will never more oppose your will, I will obey all your commands.” When the fisherman heard these words of the genie, he recovered his courage, and said to him, “Thou proud
dear sister, if you be not asleep, I pray you till daybreak, which is very near, to go on with the story you began last night.” The sultan, without waiting for Scheherazade to ask his permission, bade her proceed with the story of the genie and the merchant; upon which Scheherazade continued her relation as follows. [FN: In the original work Scheherazade