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Updated: June 4, 2025
With trembling hands the high priest placed it before his majesty. King Hagag gazed earnestly at the words that had been read, and he frowned. Raising his hand, he tore the page from the book and threw it to the ground. "I, Hagag, am king," he said, "and all such passages that offend me shall be torn out."
From far and near came beggars in hundreds, to partake of the king's bounty, and Hagag stood among them, with his blind companions, in the courtyard of the palace waiting for his majesty to appear. He knew the place well, and he hung his head and wept.
He stood at a street corner not knowing what to do. Little children teased him; others took him for a beggar and offered him money. Later in the day he saw the genii ride through the streets on his horse. All the people bowed down before him and cried, "Long live the king!" "Woe is me," cried Hagag, in his wretchedness.
"His majesty will speak to each one of you who are his guests today," cried a herald, and one by one they passed into the palace and stood before the throne. When it came to Hagag's turn, he trembled so much that he had to be supported by the guards. The genii on the throne and Hagag looked long at each other. "Art thou, too, a beggar?" said the genii.
With his own hands he placed the royal robes on Hagag and himself donned those of the beggar. When the courtiers returned they saw no difference. King Hagag sat on the throne again, and nowhere in the whole world was there a monarch who ruled more wisely or showed more kindness and sympathy to all his subjects. The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog
"Nay, gracious majesty," answered Hagag with bent head. "I have sinned grievously and have been punished. I am but the servant of a troop of blind beggars to whom I act as guide." The genii king signed to his courtiers that he desired to be left alone with Hagag. Then he said: "Hagag, I know thee. I see that thou hast repented. It is well. Now canst thou resume thy rightful place."
"I am the deer," he said. "I am a genii and I have lured thee to this spot, proud king, to teach thee a lesson for thy words this morning." Before King Hagag could recover from his surprise the youth ran back to the river and swam across. Quickly he dressed himself in the king's clothes and mounted the horse just as the other hunters came up.
Joyfully he accepted their offer to take the guide's place. Months rolled by, and one morning the royal heralds went forth and announced that "Good King Hagag" would give a feast a week from that day to all the beggars in the land.
Tired and hungry, and clad only in the rags which the wood-cutter had given him, King Hagag reached the palace late at night. "I am King Hagag," he said to the guards, but roughly they bade him begone, and after spending a wretched night in the streets of the city, his majesty, next morning, was glad to accept some bread and milk offered to him by a poor old woman who took pity on him.
They thought the genii was King Hagag and they halted before him. "Let us return," said the genii. "The deer has crossed the river and has escaped." King Hagag from the thicket on the opposite side watched them ride away and then flung himself on the ground and wept bitterly. There he lay until a wood-cutter found him. "What do you here?" asked the man. "I am King Hagag," returned the monarch.
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