The Intertwining and Its Pretext Between the Stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass in Ancient Arabic Literature

Abstract

This article examines the intertextuality and shared origins of two prominent narratives in classical Arabic literature: the story of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and the tale of The City of Brass. Both narratives, which later appeared in combined form in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah (One Thousand and One Nights), are laden with religious and mythological motifs that reflect broader cultural and theological concerns in the medieval Islamic world. This study attempts to answer the following question: “What are the common motives and ideas between the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass in ancient Arabic literature?” By analyzing these stories as they appear in key sources of classical Arabic prose, this study investigates their shared themes and explores their potential common origins predating their Arabic textual forms. This study analyzes selected classical Arabic sources to demonstrate the narrative relationship between The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes. It argues that both stories share a common origin predating their Arabic textual transmission. From a literary perspective, the tales of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes are prime examples of Islamic religious fiction, skillfully employing narrative devices to spread Islamic principles and beliefs. The stories are consistent with the core beliefs of Islam since they emphasize austerity, the certainty of death, and the primacy of monotheism. From a religious perspective, the intertwined stories of The City of Copper and Solomon’s Copper Carafes in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah provide a powerful example of how Islamic stories are inherently consistent with Islamic morality and beliefs.

1. Introduction

This study provides a concise introduction to the book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, one of the important sources of Arabic storytelling heritage in the Middle Ages. Despite the diversity of stories in the book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, there are some stories that are repeated in more than one version and continue to influence Arabic literature in later stages. Among these stories, Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass stand out as two important stories that deal with mythological and religious themes full of symbolism and imagination.

The study focuses on presenting two interconnected stories and legends that are common in many ancient Arabic literary books: the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass. These stories have appeared in numerous classical literary works, and the study will examine a sample of these works to identify the commonalities between them and reveal the underlying purpose that brought storytellers and writers together to combine them.

Classical Arabic literary sources have dealt with the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass with varying degrees of detail from one source to another. While the general framework of the stories is sometimes similar, some of these sources have narrated the stories as mere anecdotes that are open to doubt. They are considered works of fiction with no basis in reality, although they are linked to a religious theme common to the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam): namely, the greatness of the Prophet Solomon in his time. The Arab historian, sociologist, and philosopher Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808 H/1406 CE) addressed the two stories and categorically denied their validity from a historical and rational standpoint (Ibn Khaldūn 2004, p. 127). Among his statements regarding the story of The City of Brass are the following: “The conditions they described are all impossible from the human perspective and contrary to the natural laws of City building and planning… As for the construction of such a city, it is as impossible and remote as you can see, and there are many such examples. The only way to verify such stories is through knowledge of the nature of urbanization, which is the best and most reliable method for examining news and distinguishing truth from falsehood, and it precedes verification by verifying the narrators…” (Ibn Khaldūn 2004, p. 127). It is worth noting in this context that Ibn Khaldūn based his discussion of the story of The City of Brass on what al-Mas‛ūdī (d. 346 AH\957 AD) narrated in one of his books, without specifying which one. It is certainly not his book Murūj al-Dhahab wa Ma‛ādin al-Jawhar, as it does not contain what Ibn Khaldūn referred to. It is noteworthy that Ibn Khaldūn’s denial of the story of The City of Brass was based on rational conclusions that contradict the possibility of its existence in the form described in the story. The research addresses two central questions that form the scope and interest of the research: What are the motives and ideas that entered into the story of The City of Brass from the story of the Prophet Solomon and his magic carafes? What are the similarities and differences between them?

The research compares ancient texts that have entered into religious, popular and narrative literature, and makes comparisons between them that lead to understanding and determining of the intertextual overlap that occurred between them, and also highlights those common elements that reflect the influence and impact of both stories.

There are not many studies that have dealt with the story of The City of Brass. Most have stopped at aspects related to its content and its relations with known heritage stories in the ancient Arab literature. However, the most recent study that addressed the story of The City of Brass is the study by Chinese researcher Eilen Qian entitled “The Talking Ruins: A Re-reading of the Tale of the City of Brass”, which was published in 2022 (Qian 2022). The researcher focuses on studying the texts related to the story of The City of Brass in ancient Arabic sources, and compares the journey of Mūsā ibn Nusair to that city with a journey made by a Chinese traveler named Huang Yi to sites related to ancient Chinese civilization. This study benefited our research in some of the aspects related to information collected about the story of The City of Brass in the book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah.

However, there are some studies that are concerned with different aspects related to the stories in general, such as an article by researcher Bruce Fudge published in 2006 entitled “Signs of Scripture in The City of Brass”, which focused on the impact of Quranic religious elements and Islamic Quranic interpretations of the story of The City of Brass. This article provides the reader with some indications that it is an innovative story aimed at highlighting the commendable positives in Islamic religious civilization and promoting them in enjoyable and entertaining fictional ways. There is also the the study by Andreas Hamori that considered the story of The City of Brass and tried, in more than one study, to explain its integrated symbolic dimensions that express the desire of Arab writers in the classical period to glorify the state and the great caliphs. His article from 1971, entitled “An Allegory from the Arabian Nights: The City of Brass” (Hamori 1971), deals with the story and explains its symbolic aspects that are consistent with the stories of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. Also, in his 1975 study, which was published under the title “On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature” Hamori dedicates the sixth chapter, on pages 145–163, to the story of The City of Brass. Hamori focuses on a symbolic and interpretive reading and presentation of the idea of Solomon through an applied reading. In his opinion, the plot of the story came to express two themes: the first is the greatness of King Solomon, and the second is the fall of that greatness and its demise by the order of God (Hamori 1975).

The article is structured in the following manner. After the introduction, the study’s contributions and methodology are discussed in Section 2 and Section 3, respectively. Section 4 introduces and contextualises the book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, after which Section 5 briefly reviews the stories of the City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes as presented in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. Section 6 discusses some other classical Arabic literary and historical sources for those stories. Section 7 discusses the manner in which these two stories appear to be intertwined, after which Section 8 discusses the similarities and differences between them. The study concludes with a summary of its most important points.

2. Study Contributions

The study explores the intricate interplay between myth and religious symbolism in Arabic narratives, through an analysis of the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass. The study reveals the deep connections between these two narratives and the religious and mythological symbolism that they carry, and explores how these symbols influence the construction of cultural and religious identity in Arabic literary contexts. In addition, the study contributes to presenting a new methodology for comparative literary analysis, as it is not limited to comparing the narratives themselves, but rather delves into their interconnected cultural and religious origins, and explores how these narratives have evolved over the ages through Islamic and pre-Islamic cultural influences.

The study reveals how these narratives are used as media to integrate religious symbols with popular myths, reflecting an evolution in how Islamic and pre-Islamic cultures absorb common cultural symbols. These narratives do not represent mere fictional stories, but rather constitute a meeting point between literary imagination and religious beliefs, a perspective which enhances understanding of how mythological symbols were transformed to meet specific cultural and religious needs in the Islamic Middle Ages. Through this analysis, the study makes a contribution to understanding the relationship between literature and religion in Arabic heritage, as it helps expand the horizons of research on how myth and religion are integrated in literary texts, and the impact of this on the construction of religious culture in the Middle Ages.

3. Methodology

The study adopts a comparative literature approach in analyzing the semantic interweaving between the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass in classical Arabic literature. The study aims to compare the literary texts related to the two stories, and extract common ideas and semantic overlaps between them. The study provides a detailed presentation of the literary texts that contain the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass. The texts are presented in a systematic manner to help the reader understand the context in which each narrative element appears.

Based on this presentation of the literary texts, a comparative analysis is conducted between the narratives related to each story. The similarities and differences between the two stories are investigated at the level of symbolism and religious and mythological concepts, as well as analyzing how each story deals with common concepts. During the comparative analysis, the common ideas that unite the two stories are identified. This includes religious values, ethics, and mythological theories that are expressed in the texts. Investigating how these religious and mythological ideas are embodied in Arabic narratives makes the study contribute to understanding how these stories interact with the cultural and religious reality of the era in which they originated. After conducting a comparative analysis between the two stories, the study presents conclusions revolving around how each story influenced classical Arabic literature and the formation of religious and cultural imagination. In this context, the study reveals the relationship between religious and mythological symbolism, and how popular myths were integrated into religious literature to form a common cultural awareness in Arab society.

Given the lack of published academic studies on the semantic interweaving between Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass, this study seeks to make a unique contribution by presenting and analyzing this semantic interweaving between the two stories. Thus, the study opens new horizons for researchers in this field, and contributes to shedding light on the ways in which the relationship between myth and religion can be explored in classical Arabic literature.

4. Literature Review

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah

The book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah has acquired a prestigious international status and is undoubtedly considered one of the most prominent landmarks of classical Eastern narrative literature, although it did not enjoy a commensurate status among Eastern Muslims in the Middle Ages. Alf Laylah wa-Laylah (also known as Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of fictional stories, some of which have Persian, Indian, and Greek origins. However, they took on a distinctly Arabic character after being translated into the Arabic language during the Middle Ages. The stories have also undergone many modifications before reaching their printed form in the present period.

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah is one of the most important literary works in the classical Arabic heritage, and is considered a gem of oriental literature that combines myth and realistic tale, magic and fantasy, sermon and morality. This book consists of a variety of tales narrated by Scheherazade to King Shahryar during the Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, where folk tales are mixed with myths and legends. These stories belong to a variety of topics such as love, justice, fate, power, and imaginary journeys, reflecting the cultural and religious traditions of the Arab world in the Middle Ages.

The book is based on a series of tales that are closely interconnected through the framing tale, from which successive stories are derived and linked to the first story (Gyöngyi 2023, p. 56). The book has achieved worldwide fame and has been translated into various languages of the world in multiple printed volumes (Abd Al-latīf Abd al-Shāfī 1996, p. 175). Alf Laylah wa-Laylah has gained a prestigious global position and is undoubtedly one of the most prominent landmarks of classical Eastern prose fiction, although it did not receive the proper status among Middle Eastern Muslims during the Middle Ages (Lerner 2016).

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah includes a collection of legendary tales. The central idea is that the King of Persia, Shahryār, killed his wife after she betrayed him, and he decided to take a new wife every night, only to order her to be killed in the morning. It so happened that Scheherazade, the daughter of his vizier, volunteered to be his wife, wanting her sister Dunyazād to accompany her in the bridal chamber. The king agreed to her request, and when the king was alone with his bride, Dunyazād asked her sister to tell her a beautiful story. Scheherazade began to tell her a story full of events and chapters; she caught the attention of King Shahryār, and he became engrossed in listening to her talk, but she stopped talking in the morning before reaching the end of the story. This caused the king to postpone killing her until the next day, in order to be able to hear the end of the story. The same trick continued for many nights, and Scheherazade followed the first story with more stories; in each case, she stopped her recital at the most dramatic moment, until a thousand and one nights had passed. The king had admired his wife’s intelligence, sweet talk, and breadth of knowledge during that period, and so he ultimately refrained from killing her (Littmann 1986; König 2024).

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah includes strange stories of different types and sources. Some of its events take place in Persia, others in Baghdad, other events take place in Egypt. The most famous of them are the stories of Aladdin or the magic lamp, ‛Alī Bābā and the forty thieves, the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, the story of the City of Brass (which is the subject of this study), Qamar al-Zamān and the Princess, the story of Ardashīr and the Life of Souls, the biography of King Saif ibn Dhī Yazan, the Princess of Ambition, and other exciting stories (Fudge 2006).

The style of the book varies in level because its formulation differs according to the writer, and because its composition was not done at one time and by one pen, but in successive times, and by the pens of diverse cultures. It was originally written to be entertainment for popular groups and a stimulus for their imagination, and for hundreds of years it has provided amusement and sweet dreams for these groups. It is noteworthy that Alf Laylah wa-Laylah has launched immortal artistic works in various fields; painters have focused on it and highlighted many of its scenes in their paintings, musicians have quoted from it themes fragrant with oriental atmospheres, playwrights have derived plots for their plays from it, poets have drawn inspiration from it for their images and symbols, and a group of writers have simplified a selection of its stories and rewritten them in a modern style. It has provided entertainment and education for children from all over the world.

5. Both Stories in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah

The stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass appear in a shared context in many classical Arabic literary books. They are also found in combined form in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. The storytellers who spread them among the people chose to begin in the palace of the Umayyad Caliph, the fifth Caliph, ‛Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān (ruled 685–705). One day, he was talking with his companions, and they recalled the kingdom, splendor, and greatness of King Solomon ibn David. They mentioned to the Caliph that Solomon had imprisoned the jinn and devils who rebelled against him after he defeated them in Solomon’s Copper Carafes and placed his seal on them. It happened that there was a man in the Caliph’s council named Ţālib ibn Sahl, and he began to narrate to the Caliph what happened to him while he was traveling with a group of his acquaintances towards India. Their sea route was diverted by a strong storm that took them to a strange land they did not know. They arrived there at night and stayed there until morning. They saw a people with dark skin who did not know the Arabic language. They met their king, who was the only one who knew and understood the Arabic language. He received them and welcomed them in a proper manner, and asked them about their religion. They had not converted to Islam at that time. Then he asked them about the Prophet Muḥammad, and they replied that they knew nothing about him. Then the king told them that they were the first people to visit his kingdom, and he offered them food and honored their hospitality. When some of them wandered around the city, they reached the seashore and found fishermen fishing. They noticed a fisherman fishing with his net. When he lifted it, he found in it a closed copper carafe with the seal of the Prophet Solomon on it. The fisherman took it out and broke it, and blue smoke came out of it. Then they heard a voice saying: “Repentance, repentance, O Prophet of God”; a great figure emerged from the blue smoke and quickly disappeared. Those who witnessed this scene were afraid, and one of them returned to the king and asked him about it. The king told him that the figure was one of the jinn whom the Prophet Solomon had imprisoned in Solomon’s Copper Carafes, and that the fisherman had taken one out of the sea and broken it, so the jinn was relesed from it, believing that the Prophet Solomon is still alive. The jinn declared its repentance for rebellion and disbelief, and then disappeared. Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik was surprised when he heard the story from the person named Ţālib ibn Sahl, so he said to those who were with him in the council that he wished to see those wonderful Copper Carafes of Solomon. Ţālib ibn Sahl told him that this was a simple matter, and that the Caliph should send a letter to the Governor of Egypt, ‛Abd al-‛Azīz ibn Marwān (the Caliph’s brother), an instruct him to assign the governor of the North African province, the commander Mūsā ibn Nuşayr, to search for Solomon’s Copper Carafes and bring them to the Caliph in his palace in the Levant (Syria). The Caliph agreed to the proposal and assigned Ţālib ibn Sahl to carry this letter himself to the Governor of Egypt and Mūsā ibn Nuşayr. The Caliph allocated to Ţālib what food, water, and animals he needed to carry him on his journey, and ordered him to set off quickly. Ţālib ibn Sahl arrives in Egypt, where he is received and honored by the governor. The governor then allows him to proceed to Mūsā ibn Nuşayr, the governor of North Africa. Ţālib reaches Mūsā ibn Nuşayr after some time and is greeted with great hospitality. Ţālib ibn Sahl delivers the Caliph’s letter to Mūsā ibn Nuşayr, who in turn calls for a meeting of senior leaders and statesmen to consult with them regarding the Caliph’s request. They advise him to seek the assistance of a man named ‛Abd al-Şamad ibn ‛Abd al-Quddūs al-Samūdī, who is the most skilled guide in that era. The governor meets with ‛Abd al-Şamad and consults him on the matter. ‛Abd al-Şamad informs him that the journey to the location of Solomon’s Copper Carafes takes a year or perhaps more, and that the road is full of dangers. He also advises that Mūsā ibn Nuşayr appoint a temporary governor who can manage the country and defend it from enemies during the journey. Mūsā ibn Nuşayr agrees to ‛Abd al-Şamad’s suggestion and appoints his son Hārūn as his deputy during that period. Mūsā ibn Nuşayr sets out on the journey to the location of Solomon’s Copper Carafes. During their journey, they pass through many strange lands where they witness strange sights. Along the way, they learn of the existence of a strange City called the City of Brass, an ancient City built by the jinn who were ruled by King Solomon. They continue on their way until they reach a place where there is a black column with a strange-looking and very frightening person on it. ‛Abd al-Şamad asks him who he is, and the frightening person tells him that he is a genie, one of the jinn who were imprisoned by the Prophet Solomon for their stubbornness and disbelief. After a long conversation between them, the genie guides ‛Abd al-Şamad to the path to the strange City of Brass. They arrive there after a while and find that it has twenty-five doors that cannot be seen or located, and that it is closed and cannot be entered. They stayed near it for a while in hope of finding a way to enter the city. Then Mūsā ibn Nuşayr and his companions climbed to the top of a nearby mountain to see what was in the city from a high place. They were surprised to see that the City of Brass was completely empty of inhabitants. However, they were able to distinguish some tablets on which were written judgments, sermons, and poems in the Arabic language and many other languages. In these inscriptions, they read words that indicated the insignificance of the world and reminded them of death and the reckoning on the Day of Judgment, and called them to asceticism and austerity in life. So Mūsā ibn Nuşayr and his companions wept, and then returned to their camp to think of a way to enter the city. Ţālib ibn Sahl suggests building a tall ladder to climb over the wall of the City of Brass, to then jump inside. They spend a whole month making the ladder, then choose a man to carry out the task of climbing. He climbs up and when he reaches the top of the wall, he starts looking at the city and starts laughing, then jumps to the other side and dies. A group of strong men climb up to the top of the wall like him, and they all look and then laugh and throw themselves to the other side, fall and die.

Then ‛Abd al-Şamad ascends to the top of the wall. Mūsā tries to stop him for fear of his death, as he is their only guide and they cannot do without him. But he refuses and goes up reciting religious remembrances and supplications until he reaches the top of the wall. He looks at the city and starts laughing, so they fear for him that he will jump and die like his predecessors. He stays in this state for an hour, then descends and tells them that God has kept the conspiracy of the devils away from him because he was remembering God and reciting blessed supplications. He tells them that he saw ten bewitchingly beautiful girls calling out to him, and that he saw water under him as if it were an illusionary pool, and that those who had fallen before him thought it was a real pool, so they would jump into it and die when they hit the ground. He tells them that he walked over the wall and reached two towers made of brass, with two doors made of gold. He found in the middle of one of the doors the image of a brass knight with one hand pointing, with an inscription that says to rub the nail in the navel of the Brass knight twelve times and then the door will open. So ‛Abd al-Şamad did that, and the door opened and he entered through it into a long corridor with a staircase where he found many dead bodies. He found among the dead the body of a great man with keys hidden under his robe. He took them and rushed towards the door and opened it. Mūsā and the people with him saw him and were very happy when the door of the city was opened and they began to repeat “Allāhu-Akbar”. Then Mūsā ordered half of the army to enter and the other half to remain outside the wall to defend them if anything happened to them. When half of the army entered under the command of Mūsā, they buried their twelve companions who had fallen from the wall and died. Then they wandered around the city and passed by markets and strange landmarks in which lay the skeletons of dead people. They then entered beautiful and amazing palaces and found that everyone in them was dead. They also found tablets on which poems were written containing religious sermons and advice that reminded them of death. They wept when they read them, and they continued to wander around the City of Brass, which was full of strange sights and mysterious things, until Mūsā ibn Nuşayr ordered them to collect the money they saw so that they could carry it to the Caliph in his palace in the Levant. Then Ţālib ibn Sahl took some of the treasures that the tablets warned against taking, and he died because of his greed and disobedience to the instructions of the tablets written in the City. The soldiers picked up the money and left via the city gate through which they entered. After that, they met a group of dark-skinned people on their way back, so they stayed with their king for three days, and learned from him that they were in the kingdom that contains the location of the Copper Carafes of Solomon which they had gone out to search for. They learned from the king there, who spoke Arabic fluently, that he and his people had converted to monotheism thanks to Abū al-‛Abbās al-Khiđr, who guided them to the true religion. Then Mūsā told them that he was looking for Solomon’s Copper Carafes and wanted some of them to deliver to the Caliph. So, the king ordered the fishermen to extract twelve of Solomon’s Copper Carafes from the sea. Mūsā was happy and they thanked the king and gave him gifts. They returned to the Levant and entered the Caliph’s palace with the spoils they had collected from the City of Brass and the Copper Carafes of Solomon. The Caliph was very happy and Mūsā told the Caliph what happened to them in detail. Then the Caliph and those who attended the council learned that God had given Solomon ibn David a great kingdom that He had not given to any king before or after him (Fudge 2006, p. 88).

The intertwined narratives of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah serve as a compelling illustration of Islamic storytelling’s inherent alignment with Islamic teachings and ethical principles. Through these captivating tales, the authors effectively convey a message of asceticism, contentment with the simple things in life, and the ultimate transience of worldly possessions. A central theme that permeates both stories is the condemnation of worldly pursuits and the constant reminder of the inevitable fate of death. The protagonists’ encounters with the City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes serve as stark reminders of the fleeting nature of material wealth and the ultimate importance of spiritual enlightenment. The stories emphasize the futility of chasing after worldly desires, as evidenced by the tragic consequences that befall those who succumb to greed and avarice. Furthermore, both narratives reinforce the Islamic concept of monotheism and the triumph of faith over evil forces. The story of Solomon’s subjugation of the rebellious jinn and demons parallels the triumph of Islam and its adherents over the secrets of the City of Brass and the eventual acquisition of Solomon’s Copper Carafes. This symbolic victory underscores the power of faith in overcoming worldly challenges and achieving spiritual fulfillment. In fact, the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass can be categorized as exemplary instances of Islamic religious fiction, effectively employing narrative elements to propagate Islamic teachings and values. The stories’ emphasis on asceticism, the inevitability of death, and the supremacy of monotheism aligns them with the core tenets of Islam and serves as a valuable contribution to Islamic literature (Fudge 2006, p. 88).

We conclude that, although both stories in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah differ in some details, they share many narrative features that combine fantasy, symbolism, and cultural influence. By presenting mythical events and historical figures in a common context, Alf Laylah wa-Laylah contributes to the activation of these stories and presents them as part of religious and mythological motifs that reflect broader cultural and theological concerns in the medieval Islamic world.

6. Both Stories in Classical Arabic Sources

The evidence suggests that the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass predate their appearance in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, as these stories were part of classical Arabic literature in earlier works. These earlier versions exhibit notable differences from the familiar forms presented in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. The later rendition of the stories seamlessly blends them into a unified narrative, with Solomon’s Copper Carafes serving as the introduction and conclusion, while The City of Brass provides a narrative framework plus captivating and fantastical core events. To gain a deeper understanding of the stories’ evolution and the variations that distinguish them from their Alf Laylah wa-Laylah counterparts, we will examine select examples from classical Arabic prose literature that feature these narratives (König 2024).

Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī’s (d. 340 AH\951 AD) rendition of the story of The City of Brass, as presented in his literary and geographical work Kitāb al-Buldān (Book of Lands), exemplifies a narrative storytelling approach that aims to glorify the Arabic Islamic state during the era of Umayyad conquests. This inclination can be understood within the context of the author’s time, when the Abbasid caliphate’s prestige was waning in favor of the authority of non-Arab rulers like the Turks. The City of Brass narrative serves as an entertaining fictional model employed to evoke the glories of the Arab past. The caliph is Arab, as are the leaders and central characters in the text. Additionally, Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī’s incorporation of The City of Brass story can be explained by the cosmographical methodology he employed in some parts of his book. It appears among the myths, legends, and curiosities interspersed throughout the text, reinforcing the universal descriptive aspect concerned with the wonders of geographical locations. This aligns with the nature of his book and the author’s purpose in writing it. A notable aspect of Ibn al-Faqīh’s narrative is the presence of some significant changes in the story’s events. The text he presents in Kitāb al-Buldān depicts the journey of Mūsā ibn Nuşayr and Ţālib ibn Sahl to the City of Brass, which the author calls the city of “al-Baht” (which in Arabic means ’brass’). Ibn al-Faqīh’s narrative states that the caliph received news of the treasures found in the legendary City of Brass and wrote a letter to the governor of North Africa, Musa ibn Nusair, instructing him to march to the City of Brass and bring back some of its treasures. The caliph entrusted his messenger Ţālib ibn Mudrik (not Ţālib ibn Sahl as in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah) with carrying his letter to Mūsā (see: Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī 1996, pp. 38). When the letter reached Mūsā, he equipped an army of a thousand horsemen with sufficient food and water for four months and brought along a guide. They traveled for forty-three days until they reached the location of the City of Brass, where they rested for three days. During this time, Mūsā attempted to enter the city and uncover its secrets but was unsuccessful. He had constructed ladders for his soldiers to climb over its walls, but when they ascended, they would laugh and then return without saying anything. The rest of the army grew fearful of this, so Mūsā decided to leave the location and head towards a nearby lake. On their way to the lake, they found a spot on the wall of the City of Brass where a poem was written in Arabic. They stopped and read it, and they found that it reminded them of death and decay, and condemned worldly life and its pleasures. Then they continued their journey towards the lake until they reached it at sunset. They found there a jinni whose father had been imprisoned in the lake by the Prophet Solomon. They asked him about his purpose for standing there, whereupon the jinn told them that he had heard the voice of a pious man who appeared at the lake once a year. This man would pray for days by the lake, and the jinn believed that he was al-Khiđr. The jinn quickly disappeared, and they spent that night by the lake. Mūsā ordered the divers he had brought with him to dive into the lake, and they extracted yellow Copper Carafes of Solomon from it. They opened one of them, and a yellow jinn came out and flew into the sky, saying: “O Prophet of God, I will not return”. They extracted several other carafes besides the one they opened and left the area until they returned to their country (see: Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī 1996, pp. 139–42; Fudge 2006, pp. 93–97).

3.2 Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī (d. 626 AH\1229 AD), in his well-known literary and geographical book, Mu‛jam al-Buldān, mentions the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass, and it is worth remembering that he states at the beginning of his discussion of The City of Brass that he was transmitting information from Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī. He describes the city as “The Yellow City” in reference to the colouration of copper, and acknowledges its widespread fame despite its fantastical and unusual nature. Ibn al-Faqīh attributes the construction of the City of Brass to Dhū al-Qarnayn, who is said to have deposited his treasures, knowledge, and an enchanted gate within its walls. This gate prevents anyone from entering the city, and its interior is constructed from a mesmerizing stone that draws people in and induces uncontrollable laughter. Once someone gazes upon this stone, they are compelled to throw themselves upon it, remaining there until death. The city is said to be located in a desolate region of al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula). Upon hearing of the City of Brass’ treasures and the nearby lake filled with immense wealth, Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān instructs his governor in Morocco, Mūsā ibn Nuşayr, to embark on an expedition to the city. He tasks Mūsā with gaining entry to the city, investigating its contents, and reporting back to him. The caliph’s letter is delivered to Ţālib ibn Mudrik, who travels to Mūsā ibn Nuşayr in Qayrawān and presents him with the message. Mūsā assembles an army of a thousand horsemen and sets off towards the City of Brass. In fact, Yāqūt continues narrating the story exactly as it was reported by Ibn al-Faqīh, without addition or subtraction (see: al-Ḥamawī 1979, 5: pp. 80–82). al-Ḥamawī conveys the story of The City of Brass, warning that it is fictional and has no basis in reality, disavowing it. His pretext for transmitting it is that it was recorded by those who came before him among the authors known for their intelligence, and that it was well-known and widespread in his time. He therefore transmitted it as he heard it from Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī, as he states more than once. There are some slight additions related to Dhū al-Qarnayn’s role in building it and his explanation of its ability to attract people to it and the magic of its stones which attract people to the city and make them laugh until they suffer from epilepsy.

3.3 Abū Ḥāmid al-Garnāţī (d. 565 AH\1170 AD), in his literary work Tuḥfat al-Albāb wa-Nukhbat al-I‛jāb, touched on the story of The City of Brass, saying the following: “The Brass City Built by Jinn for Solomon, Son of David, Peace Be Upon Them, in the Andalusian Deserts of Morocco, Near the Sea of Darkness (The Atlantic Ocean). News of this City reached ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān, who wrote to his governor in Morocco: “News has reached me of the City of Brass built by jinn for Solomon, son of David, peace be upon them. Go to it, write to me about the wonders you see there, and hasten to reply to me quickly, God willing”. When the letter of ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān reached the governor of Morocco, Mūsā ibn Nuşayr, he set out with a large army and a great number of people. Guides accompanied him to show him the way to the city” (al-Garnāţī 1993, pp. 59–67).

A striking similarity exists between the version of The City of Brass as narrated by al-Garnāţī in the previously quoted text and that of Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī. The additions made by al-Garnāţī pertain to minor details that do not alter the central idea or overall content of the narrative. This, despite the significant time gap between the two sources, indicates that the story underwent minimal alterations and additions over the two centuries or more that separated them. This consistency across sources, both oral and written, highlights the widespread dissemination and acceptance of the tale, a fact further corroborated by the account provided in the third source, which postdates al-Garnāţī’s work by more than half a century. Despite this, the most significant change introduced by al-Garnāţī to the story lies in the ending, which confirms that Mūsā ibn Nuşayr gave up hope of entering the City of Brass (Fudge 2006). During his return journey, he encountered a statue of a man made of brass holding a tablet inscribed with a warning against entering the land beyond. Musa ordered some slaves to enter that land, but as they did, giant ants emerged from the trees and devoured them and their horses. The terrifying ants then turned towards the soldiers, but they stopped at the brass statue and did go beyond it. Upon this, Mūsā and his men departed towards the east. They eventually reached a large lake surrounded by many birds, where they rested. Mūsā ordered the divers with him to dive into the lake and retrieve whatever they found. They brought out brass jugs that were sealed and closed. When they opened one, a jinn emerged on a fiery horse, holding a fiery spear in his hand. He flew into the air, shouting, “O Prophet of God, I will not return!”. They then opened another jug, and the same thing happened as with the previous one. At this point, Mūsā ordered the jugs to be returned to the lake, and they returned to their homeland (al-Garnāţī 1993, pp. 66–67).

Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 H\1372 CE), Among the later transmissions of the aforementioned accounts is that of the renowned scholar Ismā‛īl ibn ‛Umar al-Dimashqī, known as Ibn Kathīr, in his book al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah. His version of The City of Brass includes some additions that contradict the earlier narratives. One of the notable differences is the presence of the Umayyad Caliph ‛Umar ibn ’Abd al-‛Azīz instead of ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān. Ibn Kathīr narrates that ‛Umar ibn ‛Abd al-‛Azīz, during the reign of Caliph al-Walīd bin ‛Abd al-Malik, asked Mūsā ibn Nuşayr about the most extraordinary thing he had witnessed at sea. Musa then recounted the story of passing by an island with sixteen jars sealed with the seal of Solomon, son of David, peace be upon them. He took out four of them and ordered one to be opened. When it was opened, a jinn emerged, shaking his head and saying, “By Him who honored you with prophethood, I will not return to spread corruption on Earth again”. He then looked at Mūsā ibn Nuşayr and said: “I do not see the splendor and majesty of Solomon. Fade into the earth and be gone”. Mūsā then ordered the remaining three jars to be hidden and returned to their place. Ibn Kathīr proceeds to narrate the rest of the story as it appears in the earlier accounts, attributing it to al-Sam‛ānī and others (Ibn Kathīr 1988, 9: pp. 195–96).

We conclude that the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass are not co-presented in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah merely as repetitions of earlier sources, but rather are revamped and developed into a single coherent narrative framework that reflects the superiority of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah in presenting fantasy and myth. These stories in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah represent an advanced stage of creative narration that combines history and imagination, creating a rich and complex picture that contributes to the construction of the great classical literary text.

7. The Intertwining of the Stories The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes

By studying the two stories, TheCity of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes, it becomes clear that there is a strong intertwining between them, placing them within the context of the classical folk tale. This connection is clearly evident through their intertwining within the overall framing story, which is the dominant feature of the book Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. This book is a collection of stories and tales woven from the beautiful human imagination, which Scheherazade narrates to King Shahryar and his sister Dunyāzād. It was her means of postponing her death at his hands, as was his custom with those who came before her, through the mechanism of the framing story packed with exciting and interconnected events (al-Ḥamawī 1979).

The theoretical question of determining which text influenced the other remains open. Identifying the influencer and the influenced is crucial for uncovering the unifying organic foundation between the two texts in early classical sources, leading to the distinction between the primary and secondary elements. All these questions and others converge on the axis of determining the means and the end. The means employed by all the sources that narrated the two stories together is the method of miraculous narration, coupled with the use of characters and ideas that have references in Islamic and other cultural heritages, such as the character of King Solomon, the Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān and his commander Mūsā bin Nuşayr, al-Khiđr, and others. As for the end, it is to convey messages, values, and religious, behavioral, and civilizational ideas related to the sultan and the human being. The adoption of copper as a common denominator between the two intertwined narratives indicates the existence of a close link between them. Copper was a precious metal in the customs of those times, and it symbolizes strength, hardness, and beauty. This serves the realistic aspect of the texts, which is based on inherited characters of high status on the one hand, and serves the imaginary space and its important aspects in the plot of the two stories on the other. Copper, as a rare and inaccessible metal, became a metal that indicates a distant matter. This is directly related to the nature of the story, which distances its fictional events from real reality.

8. Similarities and Differences Between the Two Stories

As a result of the above, Alf Laylah wa-Laylah co-presents the story of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes in an exciting and imaginative way, where imagination and popular literary traditions intertwine in a way that distinguishes it from other versions of these stories that focus on more specific historical and geographical aspects, reflecting a different narrative style in each source.

The stories of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes fall within the framework story of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. Together, the two stories form a coherent narrative unit. The combined story, as it appears in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, agrees that the goal is to find Solomon’s Copper Carafes and send them to the caliph so that he can see for himself the greatness of King Solomon. The story of The City of Brass was the story of reaching that goal. In this case, it is an available artistic fictional means that achieves the goal represented by the sequence of events and their logical sequence according to the logic of events and their familiarity in the stories of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah.

However, in the story of The City of Brass as it appears in literary, geographical, and historical books, the matter is different, as the roles are reversed in terms of importance. For Abū Ḥāmid al-Garnāţī, Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī, and others, the story of The City of Brass takes precedence. The plot of the story revolves around searching for the city, not for the pots, in the first place. The matter of the pots is only mentioned at the end of the story in a brief form that reflects its lack of importance, contrary to how it appears in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. This indicates a fundamental difference in the presentation, narration, and structure of the event, which makes the story in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah more detailed, exciting, and imaginative than the others.

Here, the question arises about the nature of this difference in the narrative plot between the sources. The answer, in our opinion, depends on the purpose of its documentation. The purpose of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah is not like the purpose of the other sources that we have considered as examples of the story of The City of Brass. Alf Laylah wa-Laylah does not have a scientific or semi-scientific methodology like those other sources, which contained scientific materials in various fields of interest to specialists. This means that its authors narrate the story from narratives they heard or read from those who came before them. They did not invent it or formulate it by themselves. This is what makes them differ among themselves and differ even more from the story in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah.

We will now review some of the shared and different aspects between the stories of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes.

The Beginning of the Stories: The story of The City of Brass in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah begins with a discussion in the court of the Umayyad Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān about the greatness of the reign of the Prophet Solomon, and that one piece of evidence of his greatness is those magical Copper Carafes in which he imprisoned rebellious jinn and unbelieving devils. Then, a man who attended the council named Ţālib bin Sahl begins to narrate the story. In the story of The City of Brass from Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī, the beginning is associated with a story that the caliph heard about a wonderful city among the wonders of the cities in Andalusia called the City of Baht (baht is ‘brass’), and that it contains treasures that have never been seen or heard of before. So, he sent a letter to the commander Mūsā bin Nuşayr with his messenger Ţālib bin Mudrik (not Ţālib bin Sahl) ordering him to go to it and claim its treasures. By contrast, the story according to Abū Ḥāmid al-Garnāţī begins with the moment the Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik bin Marwān learns about the City of Brass that was built by the jinn at the behest of King Solomon, and he then wrote to the governor in Morocco, Mūsā bin Nuşayr, ordering him to go to it and make sure of its truth and what wonders it contains, without specifying its location as mentioned by his predecessor Ibn al-Faqīh who considered it to be within the lands of Andalusia; this was mentioned similarly by Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī.

The Name of the City: One of the differences that the reader notices in the various versions of the story of The City of Brass is the matter of its name. It is called the City of Brass in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, and Abū Ḥāmid al-Garnāţī calls it by this name in his book. As for Ibn al-Faqīh, he calls it the City of Baht, while Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī mentions in Mu‛jam al-Buldān that Ibn al-Faqīh called it the Yellow City. Despite the difference in pronunciation, they all have the same linguistic meaning, which is “brass”.

The Motif of Weeping in the Story: Some motifs emerge in the story of The City of Brass in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah that are not present in the other sources. One of these is the motif of weeping. Mūsā bin Nuşayr and his companions wept several times during their journey and wandering in the city. The reason for their weeping was what they saw and read ascetic and tearful poems that reminded them of death, the consequences of vanity in the lowly world, and the bitterness of its pleasures. The other sources do not mention this at all. Here, the folk tale in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah can be considered a classical model of attempts to spread preaching culture, the desired behavioral trends, and the highest religious values for different generations in Islamic society during the Middle Ages.

The character of the Prophet Solomon appears frequently in the story of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, while his presence remains very limited in the rest of the sources. His character also plays a heroic role in the context of the story in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, and this is mirrored in all the other sources. It is worth noting that the employment of the character of the Prophet Solomon in the story of The City of Brass was not limited to presenting a model of the great, strong, and powerful king, but it also carries an ascetic connotation that conflicts with the aforementioned model. He also represents the character of the human being who possesses power but prefers faith, piety, godliness, and humility over greatness. This is what makes him more compatible with the text of the story, which calls on the surface for asceticism, contempt for the world, and staying away from its fleeting temptations. Perhaps it constitutes a commentary on Muslim kings, sultans, and caliphs who have been dominated for centuries by their inclinations towards extravagance, indulgence, and exaggerated luxury. In such a case, it is a critical text of the prevailing reality in Islamic sultanic society during the Middle Ages and beyond (Fudge 2006).

The story of The City of Brass occupies several pages full of detailed descriptions of many of the details of its external and internal landmarks in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah. This level of detail is what the other sources do not convey, as their material is limited to around three pages.

Mūsā and his companions were unable to enter the City of Brass as mentioned in the sources that reported it. However, Alf Laylah wa-Laylah allowed ‛Abd al-Şamad, one of Mūsā’s aides, to open one of its gates and facilitate half of the army that was with Mūsā to enter it, wander around it, and extract and carry much of its wonderful treasures as spoils of war to the Levant for the Caliph ‛Abd al-Malik.

Alf Laylah wa-Laylah provided interpretations for many of the wonderful and imaginary details that those who entered the City of Brass encountered. For example, the reason why the twelve soldiers jumped to their deaths from the city wall after laughing out loud was explained in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah as being due to beautiful sorceresses who were calling out to them to fall, and that they mistakenly saw a pool of water that they could jump into to reach those beautiful maidens. We do not find any interpretation of any such miraculous scene or event mentioned in the other sources.

Mūsā bin Nuşayr did not return to the caliph with Solomon’s Copper Carafes, but only carried news and descriptions of them, as appears in the sources. However, in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah Mūsā returned to the caliph with twelve of Solomon’s Copper Carafes in his possession. He opened them and saw the devils coming out of them saying: “Repentance, O Prophet of God! And we will never return to anything like that again”.

Some artistic and stylistic motifs appear in common in the texts of the two tales. Among the most prominent of these common elements is the element of exaggeration. The storytellers were keen to intensify the amount of exaggeration in the two stories, and this is the norm of stories in popular superstitious literature. However, those exaggerations that arise in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah more than the other sources are employed for the benefit of the text, to enrich it with more dramatic dimensions and suspense for the recipient, which justifies the extension of the story in the context of its narrative space in a manner both logical and desirable to the story’s characters and its readers. Exaggeration in such cases is an incentive to reading that causes pleasure and motivation.

The texts of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes share the performance of the national and religious function in a similar way. Both of them, to a certain extent, focus on Islamic superiority in the process of searching and uncovering the unknown and the wonderful, and reaching the truths that no one else can reach. Thus, the two texts, especially in the extended and combined model of the story in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, create an Islamic heroism based on obedience to the ruler (the caliph), who is a symbol of unity, pride, and Islam in Arab and Islamic heritage in the Middle Ages, faith and absolute reliance on God, the desire to reach the truth, cooperation, and sacrifice. These are classic features of the heroic character who is driven towards virtues.

The story of Solomon’s Copper Carafes in the considered sources mentions the character of al-Khidr. These texts hint at the possibility that he was that monotheistic supernatural character who ruled the kingdom of Sūdān, which was located next to the magical lake in which Solomon imprisoned the jinn in his Copper Carafes. However, the text in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah confirms that he is the one responsible for guiding the people to monotheism and that he introduced them to their identity. The third part of the text provides evidence for this through the following: “So Prince Mūsā said to him: How do you have knowledge and no prophet has been sent to you in such a land? He said: Know, O prince, that a person appears to us from this sea who has a light that illuminates the horizons for him, and he calls out in a voice that is heard near and far, O children of Ḥām, be ashamed of the one who sees and is not seen, and say there is no god but God, Muḥammad is the Messenger of God, and I am Abū al-‛Abbās al-Khidr, and we used to worship each other before, so he called us to worship the Lord of Lords, then he said to Prince Mūsā: And he taught us words that we say, so Prince Mūsā said: And what are these words? He said: They are: there is no god but God alone, he has no partner, his is the kingdom and his is the praise, he gives life and he kills, and he is over all things omnipotent, and we do not draw near to God Almighty except with these words, and we do not know other than them, and every Friday night we see a light on the face of the Earth, and we hear a voice saying: Holy, Holy, Lord of the angels and the spirit, whatever God willed was, and what He did not will was not, every blessing is from the grace of God, and there is no power or strength except by God the Exalted the Great”.

References and studies concerned with Islamic heritage differ in the presentation of his character in which appears on many occasions, including in popular literature and stories. Some of them have indicated that this is an important symbolic figure to whom many unique supernatural characteristics are attributed, such as knowledge of the future, miracles, speed of movement and disappearance from the eyes of people, immortality, and so on. The researchers found a relationship between his Islamic character and older characters in the Eastern Babylonian and Sumerian heritage and the like (Bashā`ī et al. 2019, pp. 223–24).

We conclude from this that the stories of Solomon’s Copper Carafes and The City of Brass share a common narrative structure within the framework of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah as they form an interconnected unit that contributes to achieving the literary goal of highlighting the greatness of King Solomon through the Copper Carafes. Based on the text, these two stories work together to achieve a logical sequence of events, such that reaching the City of Brass is considered a transitional stage towards the goal, reflecting the use of imaginative narration as a means of achieving a logical sequence of events in line with the logic of the stories in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah.

9. Conclusions

This paper examined the story of The City of Brass and its documented references in Arabic sources as well as in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, in addition to the relationship between this story and the story of Solomon’s Copper Carafes. The similarities and differences between them were analyzed through comparison of selected examples. The paper concludes with a set of conclusions, including the following: that there is a relationship between the stories told about the City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes in the classical Arabic narrative heritage, and that they originate from a common origin older than the Arabic text that was recorded by the extant sources. However, the presence of the story in its broadest and most exciting form is in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, which benefits from it, as it harmonizes with the structure of its other wonderful stories. The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes were combined together in that work within a long and extended series of fictional stories imbued with the methods of folk literature and storytelling. It becomes clear from comparison between the stories of The City of Brass and Solomon’s Copper Carafes that in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, their combination serves an Islamic dimension that proves the superiority of Islam and its religious culture and ascetic ideas and celebrates monotheism, asceticism and heavenly messages. However, other sources are more interested in narrating these stories in order to show the great splendor and power that the Prophet Solomon had. The two stories together have been subjected to a continuous process of generation and renewal over time. They were originally fictional stories that depend on the method of the ancient Arab storytellers; later, they spread orally and included many changes, additions and modifications consistent with the interests and desired uses in each stage of their development and reproduction. The documented text in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, which is one of the relatively late models of these tales, proves that they have been exposed to paths of intertextuality influenced by the traditions of storytelling in folk literature throughout the ages.

From a literary perspective, the tales of The City of Copper and Solomon’s Copper Carafes are prime examples of Islamic religious fiction, skillfully employing narrative devices to spread Islamic principles and beliefs. The stories are a significant contribution to Islamic literature and are consistent with the core beliefs of Islam since they emphasize austerity, the certainty of death, and the primacy of monotheism. The central topic of both stories is the disapproval of worldly endeavors and an ongoing reminder that death is an inescapable part of life. Additionally, both stories uphold the Islamic doctrine of monotheism and the victory of faith over evil. The findings suggest that these stories not only illustrate the interplay between myth and religious narrative in Arabic literary heritage but also contribute to our understanding of how pre-Islamic and Islamic cultures assimilated and transformed shared cultural symbols into enduring literary traditions.

Overall, this study shows that these stories were not merely independent tales, but were part of a long interactive process in the development of Arab narration, where imagination was mixed with religion and popular culture in diverse and rich frameworks.