The Goat Riding Another Goat

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]I think I have now read the best Beauty and the Beast story. It's from a Thousand and One Nights and it is called the 40 goats and the goat riding a goat.

[00:00:07]And you might have guessed it's about a girl who winds up marrying a goat. She wants to and boy does it work out for her. Like I said, it's often included in a Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights and purportedly it's from Egypt.

[00:00:19]The Sultan has three daughters and he decides to marry them all off and the way he picks their husbands is he has all the men who want to marry them go down in the square. The girls stand on the balcony and they each throw a handkerchief and whoever catches their handkerchief they have to marry. Solid plan. The first daughter's handkerchief lands on a handsome prince, second one lands on an emir and the third princess's handkerchief lands on the horns of a goat passing by. The Sultan's like uh do-over, try again, try again.

[00:00:46]But every time she throws it it lands on the goat. In a lot of stories the dad would force her to marry the goat but in this one he's like no, no, you're just going to remain a maiden forever. But she insists on marrying the goat. She's like look, destiny wanted my handkerchief on that goat. I'm marrying that goat, Dad. So he lets her marry the goat and they have a huge celebration and it said there was a joyful crowd but the crowd could not help but be disturbed over the marriage between a girl and a goat. Yeah. The Sultan, the vizier and all the women of the palace beg this girl not to consummate the marriage. Her answer is always the same.

[00:01:20]One cannot escape one's destiny. I'mma sleep with that goat. He's my husband.

[00:01:25]So they prepare her for the bridal chamber, she goes in and as you might have guessed the goat then takes off his goat skin and he's a hot human dude. The man approached her, caressed her and said, I am a powerful emir but I have been enchanted by sorcerers. I love you and I am united with you. Depends on you if we'll ever be separated. She's like, what do I need to do? And he says, you can't ever tell a soul about this transformation. Everyone must believe I'm a goat and the day someone suspects I'm not, I will disappear from you. For a time they live in happy abandon. Every night she gets to be with him as human.

[00:01:58]They're super happy. She keeps the secret well. But then a neighboring king declares war on the country and so the sultan needs all men to go to war with him. Our goat Amir transforms into a human to go do his duty and help the king. And so every night after a successful battle, all the men parade through the town like yay, we did it.

[00:02:16]And so our girl's sisters are throwing flowers to their men like there's my husband, he's so brave. So when our girl sees her goat man in his human form, she throws him flowers. The older sisters are scandalized. They're like, "What are you doing throwing those flowers to a man that is not your husband?" Keep shaming her and keep shaming her until finally she says, "That is my husband.

[00:02:35]He's only a goat sometimes." But that night, because she broke the secret, the goat does not return. And so she's so miserable, she builds a hamam, like a bathhouse, and she invites all women to come and tell her their sad stories to see if anyone is as sad as her. One day an old woman arrives and she's like, "Look, I got a story for you. The other day I went to the river to wash the only clothes I own and I saw this mule with two bottles filled with water and the mule went off and struck the ground with its hoof and the ground opened up and the mule went down there. So I followed it. Come to this underground layer where it smells like food is cooking and where there's singing and talking. Open a pot and there look like good food and I went to eat it when an invisible hand slapped me and said, "You can't touch this till the mistress comes." And same thing, she tries to get a loaf of bread and it's like, "Not till the mistress comes." She wanders through halls that are hung with like incredibly expensive tapestries and have awesome furniture and then she comes to a room with a big giant pool.

[00:03:30]And she hears hooves and she hides under a couch and 40 goats walk into the pool room and there's one goat that's riding on the back of another goat. And they all arrive, the goats stand still and then they all start to shake themselves and all their goat skin comes off and they turn into hot naked dudes. Their leader, the one who was on another goat, jumps into the water and they all follow him. They splash about and take a bath.

[00:03:53]Once they're dry, the leader starts to weep. Oh, princess of grace and beauty.

[00:03:57]And then all his companions also sob and cry with him. After they all have a big cry fest, they go to their chambers and they sleep. And that is what our chick saw. Our girl knows that that main goat is her husband and she's like, I will give you all the jewels and gold in the world if you will take me there. Woman's like, sounds like a deal. So the next day they follow the same mule and get into the underground chamber. When they go into the kitchen together, they're able to eat all the amazing succulent foods without hand slapping them away because the mistress has come. They go hide under that couch and they watch all the goats come out, turn into men, get naked and get into the pool. As soon as she sees her man, our girl wants to run to him, but you know, she's in a room full of naked men. And the story says she had no veil to cover her face to maintain her modesty, so she couldn't appear that way in front of a bunch of unfamiliar men. Prince gets up, starts sobbing again, calls for the princess, but this time all of the goats don't weep with him. Instead, they began to joyously laugh and the walls, doors, vaults, and everything appeared suddenly happy, gay, and satisfied. Prince is really stunned and so he's like, okay guys, go away. And everyone leaves.

[00:05:02]That's when his wife comes out and says, hey, it's me. The prince is overjoyed and because of her dedication in coming to this underground place, she has now broken the spell on him and he gets to be human all the time. She takes him back to her family and her sister's like recognize him as the man she was throwing flowers at. And it says that they're really jealous, but they have to pretend to be happy for her. The old woman gets well compensated. They have a feast for 7 days and 7 nights. And it says the prince and princess continued to grow in their love for each other.

[00:05:30]Which is just beautiful. What I extra love about this Beauty and the Beast story is that it's what the girl wants from the beginning, which rarely happens. She gets what she wants because she has gone after it even when it seemed horrible. I also just love the goat man having all those male buddies who like feel with him and feel comfortable to cry with each other. Like the girl said, you just can't fight destiny.