I'm trying to recall the title of a certain story from the Arabian Nights.

The story is about a poor young man who is invited to live with a rich and mysterious old man in his large palace (inhabited by equally mysterious men who wear black and weep all day), on the one condition he never opens a certain door. The young man, of course, opens the door, walks though a cave, and is carried by a large bird into another world, a heavenly paradise, where he meets and weds a beautiful woman who tells him they will live happily forever so long as he doesn't open a certain door in her palace. He opens the door, of course, and is taken by the bird to a still more heavenly world where he weds a still more beautiful woman who tells him not to open a certain door in the palace. The temptation of finding himself in a world more paradisiacal, with a wife still more divinely beautiful, proves irresistible. He opens the third door, but this time is carried by the bird back to the first palace. After living in paradise, the world to him is grey, ugly, lonely, and hopeless. The men in black are no longer a mystery to him. He puts on black robes, and joins them in weeping all day.

Last edited by Hydra; 07/29/07 06:20 AM.