| The Ebony Horse | |
|---|---|
 The Prince flies with the princess on the mechanical horse. Illustration by John D. Batten. | |
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The Ebony Horse |
| Also known as | The Enchanted Horse |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 575 (The Prince's Wings) |
| Published in | One Thousand and One Nights |
| Related | The Wooden Eagle (ru) |
The Ebony Horse, The Enchanted Horse or The Magic Horse[1][2] is a folk tale featured in the Arabian Nights. It features a flying mechanical horse, controlled using keys, that could fly into outer space and towards the Sun. The ebony horse can fly the distance of one year in a single day, and is used as a vehicle by the Prince of Persia, Qamar al-Aqmar, in his adventures across Persia, Arabia and Byzantium.[3]
According to scholarship, the tale inspired literary stories about a flying mechanical horse in Europe. Variants from oral tradition have been collected mostly from Europe and Asia, but are also attested in Africa. Although the tale appears in the work One Thousand and One Nights, a similar story is attested earlier in the Indian Panchatantra, albeit with a flying bird-like mechanism in the shape of a Garuda.
- ^ Scull, William Ellis; Marshall, Logan (ed.). Fairy Tales of All Nations: Famous Stories from the English, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Bohemian, Japanese and Other Sources. Philadelphia: J. C. Winston Co. 1910. pp. 129-140.
- ^ Kennedy, Philip F.; Warner, Marina, eds. (2013). "LIST OF STORIES". Scheherazade's Children: Global Encounters with the Arabian Nights. NYU Press. pp. 401–408. ISBN 978-1-4798-4031-1. JSTOR j.ctt9qfrpw.27.
- ^ Marzolph, Ulrich; van Leewen, Richard. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. Vol. I. California: ABC-Clio. 2004. pp. 172-173. ISBN 1-85109-640-X (e-book)