Enter Shahrazad (or Scheherazade), the daughter of the King’s vizier. She volunteers to marry the King, despite her father’s desperate protests. On her wedding night, she begins telling the King a story. As dawn breaks, she stops at a climactic moment, leaving the story unfinished.
This story popularized the phrase "Open Sesame." Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, discovers the secret lair of a band of thieves, hidden behind a door that opens only when the magic phrase is spoken. He helps himself to their gold, but his greedy brother Cassim attempts the same and is killed. The story focuses on the cleverness of Morgiana, the slave girl who outwits the thieves and saves Ali Baba, making her one of the strongest female characters in the collection. aliflailabd