English: Inscribed in Arabic: The Thousand and One Nights. Titling below image in Szyk’s hand: The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot. “The Parrot told him about the young Turk….” Arabian Nights. 5th Night. Pp. 62-64. The tales of the Arabian Nights are comprised of sixty –five stories told by Sharazade the Sultaness to divert Shahryar the Sultan from the execution of a vow he had made to avenge the disloyalty of his first Sultaness. The canny Sharazade spun her tales each evening with such skill and timing that her husband could not bear to kill her and thus lose such a splendid entertainer. The Fourth Entertainment tells the tragic story of a jealous merchant who purchased a parrot to spy upon his adulterous wife. Though the parrot told the truth about the cheating wife, both lose their life to the merchant’s rage. The full extent of Szyk’s miniature mastery is evident in this highly detailed image of the merchant dining in his opulent home. The stout husband is seated on a low dais, smoking a water pipe and gazing intently at the blue and yellow parrot. His unfaithful wife is seen at a window in the background, a look of terror upon her face. Each object in the house from the colorful carpet designs to the tiled walls, the coffee table and the parrot’s perch is intricately decorated using the jeweled colors of ruby, lapis and emerald. This illumination was printed as the Frontispiece to the Second Album of The Arabian Nights Entertainments.