Hey guys, it's your favorite Scottish mare Arabelle! I bet you
can't wait to hear this story, huh? You've got to be
thinking..."Toothbrush tree? How can there be a tree that grows
toothbrushes?" Well, it doesn't exactly grow toothbrushes, but
it does have a pretty interesting explanation behind its name.
You'll see what I mean!
Artie and Gordan had just left the quaint little town of Chora on the
Greek hillside where they had collected the precious tilio leaves for
their potion. As Artie took off into the sky, Gordan reached down
to whisper in his ear the second ingredient to the powerful potion.
"Artie...I want you to listen carefully now. The second
ingredient is Miswak!" said Gordan.
Artagan took off with excitement! "Saudi Arabia is where we must
go! I can feel it!" Artie yelled with a smile on his muzzle.
After they had flown for hours and hours, they began to descend on what
looked to be a barren and desert-like town. It was called
Duba. It was so sandy that Gordan and Artie shut their eyes as
they landed in the town square. Beads of sand pelted their faces
when the wind blew like little bullets. This was all so foreign
to them. A young man saw Gordan and Artie as they fought the pain
and ran out to help them to safety.
He led them into a small coffee brew house across the street.
They
spoke with the man for a while before they told him what they had come
for.
"We have come here in search of your flourishing miswak seed from the
toothbrush tree."
"Ah, yes of course. I have a small farm up the road where you can
find this seed. Come with me."
As the three walked the man explained where the nickname "toothbrush
tree" came from. "You see, it is called the toothbrush tree
because back when there was no other way for people to clean their
teeth; our ancestors discovered this seed had a way of cleaning and
soothing your teeth and gums. That was the only thing they had."
Gordan and Artie were glad they finally got that mystery cleared up!
When they arrived at the man's house he showed them to the toothbrush
trees he had growing in his backyard. They were growing straight
out of the dry sand! There were a couple goats nibbling on the
leaves of the trees. While Gordan picked some of the "unnibbled"
leaves from
the branches, Artie took this time to talk to the two goats.
"Hello my name is Artie. What are your names?"
"I'm Abdul and this is Ameen. It's nice to meet you."
"Could I bother you two for a story of Saudi Arabia's history? I
love to hear tales of unfamiliar places!"
The two goats looked at each other and then looked at Artie. "Why
of course! We lo-o-o-o-ove telling stories! There's this one
about
a winged horse much like yourself..."
"He was named Al-Borak after lightning
from
the sky because it described him so well. Al Borak and he
was fast, and we mean fa-a-a-a-ast! There was a prophet named
Mohammed who was awakened from his sleep by a beautiful angel.
The angel told him he was to go on a journey - a journey to a far-away
land. The man was confused and asked the angel how he was
going to get to this far away land. The angel said nothing, but
handed him a golden bridle. Mohammed look down at the bridle and
as soon as he could raise his head to look back up at the angel, an
even
more gorgeous creature appeared. It was a horse - a white,
noble horse with wings lined in gold and crystal-clear blue eyes.
It was one of the most beautiful things Mohammed had ever seen.
The horse spoke to him in perfect Arabic. Mohammed couldn't think
of anything more he wanted than to ride that horse. He reached
for the saddle and mounted Al Borak, but before he could put his feet
in
the stirrups the horse had bucked him off. The angel calmed the
horse and told him how Mohammed was a prophet of Allah. Al Borak
apologized to the young prophet and asked for forgiveness.
Mohammed smiled and forgave him before he mounted the creature for the
second time. As the two took off for the skies, the angel waved
goodbye and her wing knocked over a vase of water. Al Borak took
Mohammed for hundreds of miles from Mecca to Jerusalem before they
landed back at Mohammed's home. When they touched down at
Mohammed's front door, he reached down and caught the vase of water
that
the angel's wing had knocked before it spilled to the ground. You
see, Al Borak was as fast as lightning - so fast that their eight
hundred mile trip was not but a split-second in time. His powers
were remarkable. Nothing was faster than the mighty Al
Borak! Today the Saudi people still celebrate this journey.
They call it the Miraj."
Mohammed and Al Borak Flying to Jerusalem.
Web Source: Lovasok.
Artie's mouth was wide open in awe. He couldn't believe a horse
could fly so fast. He wished he could.
Gordan had finished collecting the seeds they needed. Artie said
goodbye to the Abdul and Ameen and trotted over to Gordan so he could
mount him. As Artie took off this time he pushed off the ground
with a
little more force so maybe, just maybe, he could be as fast as the
amazing Al Borak...
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Author's
Notes: In my version
of the story, I changed some of the details. There was a lot of
excessive description that I left out about each character. The
original story was about Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. In the
original story, Mohammed's intercession led to animals being allowed
into paradise. The story was told from a character in my frame
tale. The ending is a little different as well. In the
original story, Al Borak flew away never to be seen again. I hope
you all enjoy!
