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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Gardens

In contrast to the palaces, houses, shops, subterranean rooms, and other interior spaces, many characters in The Arabian Nights find themselves in gardens where they find truth as opposed to the illusions and lies found in human-made spaces. In “The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan,” the couple lands in a beautiful garden owned by a caliph and managed by an old man who befriends them. At first, this garden is a safe place, an escape from the evil vizier they have fled. In “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea,” when Badr cannot find Queen Lab, he goes to a garden, where he recognizes her in the shape of a white bird who makes love to a black bird. This truth about the woman who has taken him captive sends him into a jealous rage. Archetypally, gardens are commonly considered feminine and represent fertility. Gardens can be symbols of happiness and fulfillment, but in The Arabian Nights, they are often places and symbols of stark realities and truths.

Animals

Beginning with Shahrazad’s first stories, stories in The Arabian Nights use animals and people somewhat interchangeably. Sometimes, animals simply speak and act like humans in classic fable fashion. At other times, sorcerers turn people into animals as punishment or deterrent. For example, a wife who has learned sorcery turns her husband’s mistress into a cow and their son into a bull, but she ends up being turned into a deer. In “The Tale of the Envied and the Envious,” the king’s daughter confronts a demon, and they battle in changing shapes: lion, scorpion, serpent, eagle, wolf, and more. Two jealous sisters are turned into black dogs but are later released from the spell by a caliph. A king is turned into a stunning bird and then an ugly bird by the wicked sorceress Queen Lab. This motif gives the stories a magical, surreal, and otherworldly flavor in which the rules of logic and realism do not apply. Also called shape-shifting or therianthropy, a human turning into an animal is common in many cultures’ literature. The animal a human becomes usually reflects some quality specific to that person. In The Arabian Nights, the affected characters usually return to their human forms.

Wine

Throughout The Arabian Nights, wine gets characters into deep trouble. Although it is sometimes a part of a celebration, it is more often abused and leads to debauchery, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, and mayhem. Often, male characters are seduced by women who feed them with too much wine, affecting their judgments and enhancing their sexual urges. One of the admonitions given by Nur al-Din Ali al-Misri to his son is to beware of wine. The drunken hunchback reeks of wine. In “The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan,” when the two lovers get the old man who manages the caliph’s palace drunk on wine, he makes the mistake of letting them light up the palace, which tips off his master.

So many of the stories are about romantic love and lust, often fueled by wine, but so are mistakes that lead to tragedies and even deaths. Today, in modern Islam, alcohol is generally prohibited, but that was not always the case. Alcohol was once a part of Arabian life and culture. Muslims drank wine made from grapes and dates but also fermentations of honey, berries, and even cereals. As in any culture, it’s not the wine itself that is forbidden or problematic. It’s the effect of too much wine that is not only prohibited but also unwise.

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