The concluding volume of Richard F. Burton's monumental translation opens with the famous and beloved tale of Ma'aruf the Cobbler and his shrewish wife, Fatimah the Dung. Driven to desperation by her relentless demands for honey-cakes and her vicious complaints before magistrates, Ma'aruf flees Cairo into the rain and cold. Seeking shelter in a ruined cell in the Adiliyah, he encounters a subterranean Haunter or Marid who transports him to the distant and opulent city of Ikhtiyan al-Khutan.
Reuniting with his childhood friend Ali, Ma'aruf is launched into society under the guise of an immensely wealthy merchant. Prompted by an impulse of unbounded generosity, he begins distributing handfuls of gold coins to beggars and borrowing lavish sums from local traders with the airy promise that his extensive baggage train is soon to arrive. His extravagant charity quickly exhausts the local economy and wins him the adulation of the poor, but the suspicion and eventually the open hostility of the merchants.
Greed eventually overcomes the city's covetous King, who resolves to test the stranger's wealth before marrying him to his beautiful daughter, Princess Dunya. Given a priceless jewel to appraise, Ma'aruf breaks it between his fingers, declaring it a mere bit of worthless mineral. Convinced of his immense riches, the King eagerly proceeds with a forty-day wedding celebration of unprecedented splendour, funded entirely by Ma'aruf's lavish distribution of borrowed and royal wealth.
As months pass without the arrival of the mythical baggage train, the suspicious Wazir presses for exposure, convincing the King to test the hero once more. Aided by Princess Dunya, who has grown genuinely devoted to her husband despite discovering his humble origins as a cobbler, Ma'aruf manages to escape execution. Fleeing into the wilderness, he encounters a simple ploughman and accidentally uncovers a subterranean treasure hoard left by Shaddad son of Ad, containing the legendary magic Seal-ring.
By rubbing the ring, Ma'aruf summons Abu al-Sa'adat, the gigantic Sultan of the Jinns, who instantly transports countless mules laden with precious stones, gold, and costly Syrian and Persian stuffs. Returning in imperial splendour, Ma'aruf completely confounds the Wazir and his creditors, paying back all debts manifold and resuming his high position at court.
Yet the danger from the treacherous Wazir returns. Exploiting Ma'aruf's moments of pious vulnerability when he removes the sacred ring to sleep or bathe, the Wazir tricks him into a drunken stupor and banishes both him and the King to the desolate Desert Quarter. The Wazir seizes the throne and attempts to force himself upon Princess Dunya, but her quick wit and a well-timed kick allow her to regain possession of the talisman and imprison the tyrant.
Father and husband are restored to the capital, the wicked Wazir is executed and burned, and Ma'aruf is finally established as a wise ruler. Years later, after Dunya's death, his hateful first wife Fatimah magically finds her way to his palace and attempts to steal the ring once more. She is struck down by Ma'aruf's valiant young son, neatly resolving the lingering threat from his past.
The work concludes with the historic framing narrative of Shahrazad and King Shahriyar. Having completed her thousand and one nights of storytelling and presented three royal children, Shahrazad pleads for her life as a dole to her infants. The King, already deeply repentant and convinced of her pure and pious nature, officially pardons her. The book ends with peace settling over the provinces, the brothers Shahriyar and Shah Zaman ruling in harmony with their devoted wives, and the final preservation of these legendary tales for posterity.
