In the famous collection of medieval fairy tales "Tales of a Thousand and One Nights" there is a story entitled "The Black Magic Horse". This is another lengthy love story, from which we will allow ourselves to give here a description of this mysterious black horse.
The ruler of Persia, Shah Sabur, received a horse made of black ebony as a gift from a sage. Handing over the gift, the sage explained: “This wooden horse in just one day will carry you further than a real, live horse - in a whole year, because it flies through the air like an eagle. No sea will be too rough and stormy for you, no mountains will seem too high. On this horse you can overcome everything …"
Do not say anything, amazing properties for a horse! The Great Unknown Man demonstrated to the astonished Shah the flying qualities of a black horse. Sitting on a horse, the sage turned a vertebra on the animal's neck, and “the horse immediately soared into the air with incredible speed. Shah Sabur and his courtiers were numb from amazement at the sight of such an amazing rider, who soon became the size of an eagle, then shrank to the size of a sparrow, then became no more than a fly, and finally completely disappeared from sight.
What kind of "vertebra" was that capable of performing such miracles? However, the uninitiated could not afford it. When the prince sat on the black horse, the horse did not move. And only after the functions of the “vertebra” were explained to the prince, the horse came to life and began to move.
For landing, it was necessary to use another small vertebra, which the prince did, after being in the air for a long time and being unable to land on the ground. At first, he could not feel the vertebra, then he pressed on it incorrectly. "At the same moment, he [the prince] noticed that the horse obviously slowed down and landed on the ground."
The prince got off his horse in some distant country, and then, having made a number of new flights, even visited China. There he showed the black magic horse in action to one of the local king, and at first he could not even follow the flight of the horse "because of the huge cloud of dust" that he uplifted during takeoff.
In the further course of the story, the horse reappears in it, becoming an important participant in the action. Once, even a princess flew on it, who was able to quickly overcome her fear of an unusual vehicle, since "… the horse flew calmly and did not shake in flight."
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It is not unusual for the horse to throw up clouds of dust. The unusual thing was that they were so large that they often did not see the "horse" behind them. And the fact that the horse instantly soared into the air can be attributed to the desire of the impatient rider to take wishful thinking.
However, the evidence that “the horse did not shake in flight,” and that various “vertebrae” were used for starting and landing, looks truly amazing. Moreover, the black horse, it turns out, could carry not one rider, but several at once.
According to legend, this amazing "beast" was placed in the royal treasury, where he, presumably, remains to this day, patiently waiting for us to find him!
Horse on screws
In Chinese mythology, one can find not only legends about fire-breathing flying dragons, but also about winged horses. Thus, a skilled carver carves a wooden horse that requires twenty-six screws to join. Then the prince reappears, who, with the help of a magic horse, goes to distant lands and experiences a lot of exciting adventures there.
He falls in love with a princess, whom, because of her amazing beauty, his own father imprisoned in a kind of "castle in the air", resting on the clouds. Of course, the hero of this story manages to climb to the princess on his flying horse.
By the way, at the disposal of the king, the princess's father, there is also a flying horse, with the help of which he delivers the guards to the castle in the air (this horse, presumably, has a very wide back and an equally huge saddle!), Which must drive away the prince in love.
However, to the horror of the king, the guards now and then sleep in the castle in the air: perhaps, there, above, the lack of oxygen affects. And the prince, using this, flies to the princess every time, and his screw horse carries the lovers to safety, beyond the clouds.
Thanks to ancient mythology, another winged horse - Pegasus, also of divine origin, gained worldwide fame. Pegasus freely sweeps across the sky and earth, and no one is able to catch up and catch him. And only thanks to the help of the goddess Athena, the young man Bellerophon, the pet of the gods, manages to tame Pegasus and make him serve him.
Sitting on the back of a winged horse, Bellerophon defeats many enemies, and what is there - whole hordes. And this imaginary invincibility one day turned his head. Bellerophon decided to take off into the sky to visit the gods. And so he lifted off the ground and began to gain height, rising higher and higher.
The father of the gods, Zeus the Thunderer, at the sight of such insolence, got angry and erected a barrier in the sky, hitting which, the winged horse pricked and threw off its rider. Bellerophon fell to the ground, crashed terribly and was crippled. However, the winged horse Pegasus continued its flight alone, without a rider. He brought lightning to Zeus, which he threw all over the world.
Anyone who takes the trouble to read the tales and myths of different nations will invariably encounter the motive of the "flying horse". It usually highlights the following elements:
• "Horse" has devices that provide him with the ability to fly.
• Pilots must be able to use these devices correctly.
• The pilot should be prepared for the flight, in particular, master instrument control.
• With the right "operating technique" the "horse" can make countless take-offs, landings and long-distance flights, and the flights themselves will be calm, without shaking.
• During takeoff, the "horse" raises a huge cloud of dust.
• "Horse" is capable of carrying many riders (for example, warriors) in one flight.
• It serves as an effective vehicle between the earth and the "castle in the air", that is, a very large object outside the Earth (perhaps, as other mythologies say, this object is nothing more than a space station in low-Earth orbit).
• People who, without any thorough preparation, climb on such a "horse" to the "castle in the air", "now and then sleep." This could indicate a dramatic change in conditions, as the guests were not prepared to visit the orbital station.
• The "horse" can be damaged and injured, as a result of which the pilot can fall to the ground and receive serious injuries.
Despite the fact that stories about such strange "horses" may turn out to be a fantasy, despite the fact that later chroniclers and translators have thoroughly revised them, the main substantive core of the legend remains the same: it tells of a certain flying, very powerful object with the ability to move through the air of skillful, worthy and enlightened pilots.
Author: Wolfgang Siebenhaar
