"The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" is a sub-substory of "The Fisherman and the Jinni", one of the eleven core stories of the Arabian Nights. Told within "The Fisherman and the Jinni" by the fisherman to the djinni is "The King Yunan and the Sage Duban", within which the vizier tells the king the story of "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" after the king already told the vizier one or two stories himself. As "The vizier that was punished", the sub-substory is part of Volume 1 of Antoine Galland's Les Mille et Une Nuits, which saw publication in 1704. An English translation from which in turn many other translations followed occurred in 1706 with the publication of the Grub Street The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. In Richard Francis Burton's influential 19th Century English compilation, it is included in Volume 1, published in 1887, as "The Prince and the Ogress".
In the original text, the creature the prince deals with is a ghoul, but in 1704 ghouls weren't a creature familiar to Europe. For their role as eaters of humans, they were deemed analogous to ogres and translated as such. It was "The Story of Sidi Nouman" in which the ghoula was translated as "goule" and explained to Western audiences for the first time. That the so-called ogress is a "ghole" too was first acknowledged in Jonathan Scott's 1811 translation, but for about half a century thereafter it depended on the translator whether she would be identified as an ogre or ghoul. The story's currently common title of "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" is courtesy of the 1990 translation by Husain Haddawy.
As a threefold substory, "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" is short. Whether by narrative accident or intentional manipulation by the vizier, the motive given for telling it changes between the prompt and the wrap-up. The vizier brings the story up by stating that if he himself is untrustworthy, he is to be punished like the vizier from "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul". Once he's done telling it, he uses the unreliability of the fictional vizier as a metaphor as to why the king shouldn't trust his doctor. The king doesn't pick up on this change of tactic.
There was once a prince of Persia who enjoyed hunting. On these outings, he was accompanied by the vizier to ensure his safety. One day, the vizier urges him to make game of a fleeing animal and the prince does so. He both loses track of it and of the way back home. As he wanders around, he comes across a woman who introduced herself as a princess from India. She was out horse-riding when she fell asleep and off her horse, becoming just as lost as the prince before her. Taking pity, he helps her up on his horse so that they can both search for a way home. At some ruins, the princess asks for a moment to relieve herself. When she's out of sight, the prince goes after her and discovers that he's been deceived: she is not an Indian princess, but a ghoul with multiple children to whom she announces that she's brought a fat boy for dinner. The prince returns to his horse and when the ghoul comes back outside, she notices he's upset and asks him about it. The prince answers he's being deceived without accusing the ghoul directly, prompting her to reply that he should ask Allah for protection. Taking the advice, the prince asks for protection from his enemies, which makes the ghoul back off. The prince leaves and finds his way home eventually. He relays his peril to his father and blames the vizier for it all. The king has the vizier executed.
As an old tale, variants of "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" exist. In John Payne's 1882-1884 translation, the "The King's Son and the Ogress" is found in Volume 1 as usual, while Volume 5 contains another "The King's Son and the Ogress". The Volume 5 version is the same tale but omits the reveal that the woman is a ghoul and the existence of her children. In William Alexander Clouston's 1884 The Book of Sindibad; or, The Story of the King, His Son, The Damsel, and the Seven Vazīrs, two versions of The Prince and the Ghūl are included. The first implies that the ghoul and the hunted animal, a wild ass, are the same creature, names the prince as Bedr, and features a sizable group of ghouls that are not identified as the main ghoul's children. The second identifies the hunted animal as an antelope, is clear that the vizier meant for the prince to die, sets the number of ghouls the main ghoul meets up with to two and doesn't identify them as her children, and instead of the ghoul being held at bay by a prayer, a literal angel swoops down to smite her.
For nearly two centuries "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" was of little consequence among the other stories in Arabian Nights. This changed when Edward Lucas White used it as the uncredited basis of "The Ghoula" and "Amina", the latter being particularly noteworthy as the starting point of the Weird take on ghouls.
"The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Area: The ghoul and her children have taken up residence in some unspecified ruins in an area abandoned by human civilization. It allows them to hunt for lone travelers without much risk for retaliation.
- Chivalrous Pervert: The prince, upon meeting a princess lost like he is but without mount, offers her a seat on his horse so that they can both look for the way back to civilization with no ulterior motives. But as they pass some ruins, the princess requests a break so she can go relieve herself there. Once she's out of sight, the prince sneaks after her, ostensibly to watch her in the act.
- Creepy Child: The ghouls waiting in the ruins for their mother to bring them food are mere children, but human-eaters still and eager to set their teeth in a healthy fat specimen.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The vizier is put to death for having encouraged the prince to go after an animal during the hunt and losing track of him thereafter when he was supposed to ensure his safety. He was not the one who threatened the prince's life, couldn't have known about the ghoul, and is not described as or accused of having purposely sent off the prince. He failed to do his job due to circumstances, for which execution seems quite radical.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The prince gets lost during a hunt after going after an intended prey that manages to outrun him. As he wanders around, he meets a woman who is a ghoul and who decides to make him her prey by means of trickery. Like his own prey, though, he manages to escape.
- Monster Is a Mommy: The prince meets a woman who convincingly looks and plays the part of a princess from India. In truth, she is a ghoul intending to eat him. But not alone. She has at least two children to whom she intends though fails to feed the prince.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The ghoul returns to the prince to lure him to the ruins to eat him, but he's already eavesdropped on her and her children discussing having him as their meal. Visibly terrified, the ghoul asks him what is bothering him and he tells her he has an enemy through no fault of his own. As the ghoul is not accused directly, she tells him that he should ask Allah for protection from this fiend's designs. He follows her advice, uttering an invocation that protects him from the ghoul. Knowing the prince is out of her reach, she gives up and returns to the ruins alone.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: There are at minimum three ghouls: a mother and several children of hers. The mother is implied to either look like an attractive young woman or have the ability to take that form, which she uses to gain people's trust and lure them to her home in some old ruins for her and her children to feast on.
- Struggling Single Mother: The ghoul lives in some old ruins with her children and no mention of any father being part of the household. She has to leave the children alone whenever she sets out to hunt and in the story wastes a lot of time and energy on a prey she fails to claim.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The ghoul pretends to be a princess from India who went out on a horse ride and fell off her horse when fatigue overcame her. A frail woman used to the luxury, horribly lost without a mount to make travel easier is sure to garner sympathy from any potential meal, like the prince.
