Khoja Ibn Sina

a man named Abdullah from Balkh. This man had a son named Abu Ali Ibn Sina, who was considered a strange boy. He spent his days and nights wandering the streets, visiting the dervishes, and asking everyone he saw about other cities and villages, about people, about herbs, about this and that. All this brought him no income, and people thought nothing of him. No matter how much Ibn Sina’s relatives, friends, and acquaintances urged him to take up some profitable trade, to learn to earn his daily bread, nothing helped.
   One day Ibn Sina came to his father and said:
   – Father, I can no longer stay in this city. I want to go on a journey, to see new cities and to learn what there is that is not in our land.
   – What you know, – replied the father, – is enough for you. Only Allah is destined to know everything, and no one can know as much as He.
   – Yes, you are right, – said Ibn Sina, – and I do not doubt that no one will reach such perfection in knowledge as Allah. But a person can surpass all other creatures in wisdom and learning…
   Whether a little or a lot of time passed after that conversation, Ibn Sina somehow came again to his father and said:
   – Last night I had a dream: as if I were sitting on a cloud and racing through the sky. Finally, I reached the milky sea, lay on its shore, drank milk to my heart’s content, and immediately became so fat that I felt cramped in the world.
   – You rode in a dream on a cloud, – reasoned the father, – which means you are destined for a journey; the milky sea is knowledge, you drank milk from this sea and became fat, which means you will become a great scholar, and your fame will spread across the earth. Let us go to another city, there I will entrust you to some scholar, and he will teach you everything he knows.
   He took Abu Ali by the hand, and they left the city. They traveled two or three farsang

through the dry and scorching desert, became very tired, and then from afar saw a spring, around which grew huge old trees. They approached this spring, drank water, washed themselves, and lay down to rest under the trees. Ibn Sina’s father lay on the ground and groaned: “Oh!”.
   Suddenly, from the hollow of one tree, a beardless man emerged and said:
   – What do you want from me, why are you calling me?
   – I am calling no one, – replied Abdullah. – I am tired, washed myself, lay down here to rest, and just said: “Oh!”.
   – And I thought you were calling me! – said the beardless man. – Tell me, who are you, what are you looking for, what brought you here?
   The old man from Balkh replied:
   – This boy is my son. He does not want to engage in any trade, he only wants to know everything that exists in the world, to poke his nose into every hole, to seek something new, to remember what he sees.
   The beardless man looked closely at Ibn Sina, seeing that the boy might be useful to him.
   – If it is as you say, let the boy stay with me, – he said to the father, – I will teach him everything I know.
   Abdullah agreed, left Ibn Sina under the tree, and returned to the city.
   The beardless man took Ibn Sina by the hand and pulled him through the hollow into the tree. There he led the boy through some doors into a huge garden, and in the garden stood many houses. The beardless man led the youth into one of the rooms and said to him:
   – Here is your room, you will live here; you must not go into the other rooms of the house. I am a master of the sciences of “kimia” and “simiya,” and I will teach you these sciences. If you prove to be diligent and remember well everything I will tell you, and, as they say, manage to come out of the water dry, I will keep you here with me, but if not, I will drive you away so that not even your spirit will remain here.
   Ibn Sina listened to this and was very pleased. “This place, – he thought to himself, – is the sea that I dreamed of!”.
   Ibn Sina stayed there and began to study diligently.
   Several days passed. One day the beardless man went to the desert, and Ibn Sina sat all alone in his room. Suddenly the door opened, and a girl entered, so beautiful that it seemed she was saying to the moon: “There is no need for you to rise – for I am already here!”. She walked gracefully and smoothly, and Ibn Sina, in astonishment, opened his mouth, sitting as if nailed to the spot. “Who is this girl, – he thinks, – how did she appear here?”.
   Finally, he came to his senses and asked:
   – Girl, who are you and what are you doing here?
   – I am the daughter of the beardless man! – replied the girl. – From the very first day you came here to my father, I fell in love with you! Love for you has taken root in my heart, and I am very worried about your fate. Today I came here to reveal to you a secret – here it is: if you want to leave here safe and sound, remember well everything your father teaches you, but do not let on that you have understood and remembered everything. Pretend to be a simpleton and act like a fool. You should tell him: “It is difficult for me, I do not understand what you are teaching me; I cannot manage anything. Better show me something easier so that I can remember it!”. And you be on your guard and remember everything well – it will be useful to you in life. If my father finds out that you have remembered and understood everything he has taught you, and your head is well-comprehending, he will take you and throw you into one of the barrels filled with acid. These barrels are located in underground storages, and the underground storages are somewhere beneath these rooms, or perhaps beneath his own room. There below stand thousands of barrels with acid, and in each barrel is a young man, and I do not know what my father wants to do with them.
   – Once I asked him why he does all this? And he replied that he wants to strengthen, make strong and healthier the hearts, brains, and souls of all these young men, then to graft their souls to his soul and thus become immortal. But he said that he has not yet managed to complete this experiment. So, you remember everything he teaches you, but do not say that you are remembering.
   Ibn Sina also fell in love with the girl. He listened carefully to her good advice and every day used various tricks to extract something from the beardless man. The girl also helped Ibn Sina, and he learned various wisdoms from her.
   One day, when the beardless man went to the desert again, the girl came to Ibn Sina and brought him all her father’s books.
   – All knowledge my father takes from here, – she said to the young man.
   Ibn Sina read and memorized everything that was written in these books well, and soon surpassed the beardless man in knowledge and wisdom.
   He began to think more and more about how to escape from the fate of those young men who were in the barrels with acid and to leave the beardless man’s house. He kept pretending to be a fool and acted as if he did not understand the sciences that the beardless man taught him. The beardless man could do nothing with Ibn Sina for a long time. Finally, he became completely exhausted and said to the young man:
   – On the day I met you with your father, I thought you were a clever person and would be useful to me, but, as it turns out, my hopes were not fulfilled, and my efforts and lessons have gone to waste!
   Then he took Ibn Sina by the hand, led him out of the house, took him through the tree, and left him in the waterless desert. The beardless man thought that Ibn Sina would die there from hunger and thirst.
   Meanwhile, Ibn Sina’s parents sat at home and remembered their son.
   – How long we have not seen our son! – they said.
   And at that very moment, Ibn Sina appeared at the door. Everyone rejoiced, began to hug and kiss him, and then asked:
   – How long have you come for?
   – Forever, – replied Ibn Sina. – I have come to help you, to be your support and assistance, to apply for the benefit of people what I have learned.
   Then he turned to his father:
   – Know that I am not the Ibn Sina I was before. I now know so much that you simply will not believe until you see for yourselves.
   Several days passed, and Ibn Sina said to his father:
   – My dear father, they say in our city that the senior qadi

loves deer very much. I will take the form of a deer, and you will take me to him and sell me for three hundred ashrafi

, but be careful, under no circumstances give away the halter. If you give away the halter, – we are doomed. And do not forget to tell the judge that the deer does not eat like others, grass and greens, but feeds on sugar and sweets.
   Ibn Sina’s father did just that. He brought the deer to the house of the senior qadi, and as soon as he came out of the house and saw the deer, he immediately decided to buy it – he liked the deer very much. He approached Ibn Sina’s father and asked:
   – How much do you sell the deer for?
   – I will give it for three hundred ashrafi, – replied the old man. – But know: the deer feeds on candies and sugar, and does not eat grass.
   The qadi paid three hundred ashrafi and bought the deer. Abdullah was about to take the halter off the deer’s neck, but the qadi stopped him. Abdullah said:
   – I sell the deer without the halter.
   – Deer are always sold with halters, – the qadi replied.
   – Our custom is such! – Abdullah replied. – If you want, buy it; if not, do not!
   The qadi had no choice but to agree. He handed the deer over to his servants, and they led it to the stable, entrusted it to the stableman, and strictly ordered him:
   – The deer does not eat grass. Instead of clover and straw, give it sugar and candies.
   – What’s this! – the stableman exclaimed in surprise. – Where is it seen that a deer is fed sugar and candies? We ourselves never get any sugar or candies, and here we are to give it to a deer – what nonsense!
   The qadi’s servants and everyone who was there said to the stableman:
   – Don’t talk nonsense! The senior qadi’s deer is the senior qadi among deer, and therefore it will eat candies and sugar.
   Whether he wanted to or not, the stableman led the deer into the stable.
   – Well, – he shouted at the deer, – before I give you candies and sugar, I will treat you to a whip!
   Saying this, the stableman began to look for a whip. He found one, swung at the deer, – but it was no use! The deer jumped up, and the whole stable was filled with dust from its hooves, it soared into the air and butted the stableman so hard that he fell to the ground. When the dust settled, the stableman, barely alive, got to his feet, and lo and behold, the deer was already nowhere to be found. He began to shout:
   – Where is the deer, where is the deer? Where did the deer go? The stableman trembled with fear, ran to the qadi, and barely managed to say:
   – I led the deer into the stable. Suddenly it bolted, butted me, then soared into the air and disappeared.
   – You are lying, dog! – the qadi said sternly. – A deer cannot fly away and disappear from sight! Come on, confess what you did with the deer?
   – Once or twice I hit it with a whip, – said the stableman, – and then it jumped up, raised a terrible dust, and disappeared. I did not see it again.
   – Well, – replied the qadi, – I will tie you in the stable instead of the deer.
   And so he did.
   Abdullah returned home and began to count and recount the money. At that moment, Ibn Sina entered and said to his father:
   – Tomorrow I will turn into a beautiful horse, and you will take me to the house of the city governor – they say he is a lover of horses. Sell me for five hundred ashrafi, but do not forget to take back the bridle! If you give away the bridle, – we are doomed, and you will never see me again.
   – Alright, – agreed Ibn Sina’s father, and the next morning he took a beautiful horse, unlike any in the whole city, to the house of the city governor. The chief stableman of the city governor, when he saw the horse, opened his mouth in astonishment. He approached Abdullah and wanted to bargain to buy the horse for his master, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the beardless man appeared. He had changed his appearance, and Abdullah, Ibn Sina’s father, did not recognize him. But the beardless man recognized them and understood that Ibn Sina had outsmarted him. He approached Abdullah and asked:
   – How much do you ask for the horse?
   – Five hundred ashrafi without the bridle! – he replied.
   – So be it, take six hundred ashrafi and give me the horse along with the bridle! – said the beardless man.
   In short, they bargained and bargained, and finally, the beardless man offered Ibn Sina’s father a thousand ashrafi. The old man could not resist – he loved money too much – and gave him the horse along with the bridle.
   And Ibn Sina immediately recognized the beardless man and understood that if he managed to get hold of him, there would be no salvation for him, and he would have to part with life. But no matter how he looked at his father, no matter how he winked at him – do not give away the bridle! – nothing helped. Ibn Sina’s father understood nothing, or perhaps did not want to understand.
   And so the beardless man led Ibn Sina in the form of a horse home, and on the way said to him:
   – You did well to pretend to be a simpleton and a fool! You seem to have turned my daughter’s head, for she showed you the way and the underground passages and taught you everything I know! But know that I did not learn all this to so gullibly and simply pass it on to a person and reveal to him the secrets of all things.
   Finally, they reached the beardless man’s house, he called his daughter and said:
   – Hey you, wretched one, you revealed the secrets of my books to this man so that he would become my rival and drive me from the light! Quickly bring me a sharp knife!
   The girl thought: “Oh, Allah, he wants to kill such a beautiful young man!”.
   She went, took the knife, approached her father, and then suddenly fell to the ground and pretended to cry out: “Oh, oh, I have broken my leg!”. The beardless man was taken aback, frightened, and ran to his daughter to help her up. At that moment, the horse shook off the bridle from its face, turned into a dove, and flew up high. The beardless man saw this, turned into a falcon, and flew after the dove. The dove saw that the falcon was catching up with it, landed on the ground near the sultan’s palace, turned into a diamond, and stuck to the sultan’s crown.
   The falcon, however, took the form of a dervish, approached the sultan’s throne, and kissed the ground before him.
   – What do you want? – the sultan asked him.
   – That diamond over there that has stuck to your crown.
   – What do you need the diamond for, old man? – the sultan was surprised. – I would rather give you a purse of gold.
   – No, – replied the dervish, – if you want to reward me, then better give me what I ask for!
   – Well then, take the diamond, take it! – agreed the sultan.
   The dervish approached to take the stone from the sultan’s crown, and the diamond fell to the floor and turned into pomegranate seeds.
   The dervish turned into a rooster and began to peck at the seeds, but one of the seeds turned into a jackal, and it strangled the rooster.
   Everyone looked on – unable to take their eyes off, mouths agape in astonishment – what would happen next? Suddenly the jackal disappeared, and in its place appeared a tall, slender, handsome young man.
   – Who are you? – the sultan asked. – And what does all this mean?
   Ibn Sina told them his adventures from beginning to end – from cover to cover.
   The sultan rejoiced that such a sage had appeared in his land and said:
   – Oh, Khoja Ibn Sina, if I could find a bride for my son – a beautiful and wise girl, I would give my daughter to you today. But I have given my word that until I marry off my son, I will not marry off my daughter. So you, I see, know everything, you are a great sage, help me find a smart, knowledgeable, but at the same time beautiful girl.
   – Well, I know such a girl! – said Ibn Sina.
   He went and brought the daughter of the beardless man. The sultan saw her and immediately understood that she was just the girl his son needed – beautiful and learned.
   The sultan ordered the city to be decorated. He gave his daughter to Ibn Sina, and married his son to the daughter of the beardless man. For seven days and seven nights they celebrated the wedding and lit festive fires.
   And Ibn Sina was henceforth called “Khoja Ibn Sina” – for he was a master of all sciences and wisdoms.
   This is the whole tale of Ibn Sina, who mastered the secrets of the sciences and passed them on to other people.
   May you achieve the fulfillment of your desires, as he achieved the fulfillment of his.