Magic Carpet - Television Tropes & Idioms

Riding a Flying Carpet, an 1880 painting by Viktor Vasnetsov.

A Magic Carpet or Flying Carpet is a carpet that can rapidly transport passengers who sit on top of it, typically by flying through the air. It typically features a Persian carpet design. The Other Wiki gives more details

and some examples.

Compare Sky Surfing, Flying Broomstick, Hover Board.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Baishana from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! rides around on one of these, since he is modeled after a stereotypical snake charmer.
MÄR's Edward has a magic carpet. It crashes when they meet the last member of their team and it's not seen again.
Mr Popo has one. It gets 10,000 miles to the soul - gallon, to the gallon.

Card Games

There's a Magic card named Flying Carpet. Early versions of it were destroyed if the creature it targets dies; this was later removed, but the card still sucks.

Comic Books

Asterix and the Magic Carpet features an Indian with a Flying Carpet.
A chapter of Sandman set in the legendary Baghdad of the 1001 Nights features a flying carpet. It's pretty shabby despite belonging to the king.
The Arabian Knight, a Captain Ethnic in the Marvel Universe, rides a flying carpet (as well as wielding a magical scimitar).

Film

Disney's Aladdin and its many spin-offs featured a sentient, mute magic carpet as a character.
The Thief of Bagdad, probably the Trope Codifier
There was a plan to put a "magic carpet" (that is James Bond riding a carpet down some phone wires) in The Living Daylights, but it was dropped.
The fourth installment of Fantaghiro mentioned it when playing with the Flying Broomstick trope: When Xellesia and the Black Queen realize that the latter can't transform into anything that flies, they seek an alternate means, and reject carpets because they only work well in Arabian Nights Land.

Folklore

The legendary Hebrew figure Solomon had a magic carpet that took him rapidly from place to place by using Solomon's command of the wind.
In Russian folk tales, Ivan The Fool is given a magic carpet by Baba Yaga.

Literature

Arabian Nights featured the magic carpet of Tangu or Prince Housain's carpet. The latter doesn't fly, but instantly teleports itself and its passenger wherever the passenger wishes to go.
Mark Twain's Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven uses magic carpets as instantaneous teleporters.
J. K. Rowling's companion book to Harry Potter, Quidditch Through the Ages, claims that magic carpets are more popular than broomsticks among wizards in the Middle East and South Asia. Also, it mentions that it's illegal to import flying carpets into the United Kingdom.
- Prior to that, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch mentioned that his father owned a flying carpet that seated twelve back when it was legal.
One features in Diana Wynne Jones's Castle in the Air.
Seems to me there was one in the Christopher Moore novel Practical Demonkeeping but maybe it was a genie, or the demon.
In the Soviet children's novel Old Man Hottabych, which was based on and parodied several Middle Eastern folk tales, features, among other things, a Flying Carpet.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld the Flying Carpet is a moderately common object in Klach.
Family-sized flying carpets are advertised as an alternative to cars in the Incarnations of Immortality series.
Harry Turtledove's The Case Of The Toxic Spell Dump is set in a Magitek alternate universe where everybody drives carpets instead of cars. (Los Angeles still has a major air pollution problem, though, caused by stray fibres shed by thousands of carpets.)
In Lieutenant Gullivar Jones His Vacation (a.k.a. Gulliver of Mars) by Edwin Lester Arnold, a magic carpet carries Lieutenant Jones to Mars where he experiences a series of adventures similar to those later enjoyed by John Carter of Mars. Jones and his magic carpet also appeared in the first issue of the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
In The Black Company, the ~~Nazgul~~Taken use flying carpets both to travel long distances quickly, and for tactical superiority in battle.
In The Bartimaeus Trilogy, the eponymous djinni remarks that flying carpets were made by weaving spirits into Oriental rugs. Shudder.
The Swedish YA mystery stories about Ture Sventon features flying carpets (well, at least two of them) in what is otherwise a non-fantasy modern-day setting. It is the eponymous hero's main form of transporation in the first three novels.
In The Enchanted Forest Chronicles the main characters have occasion to borrow one from a neighboring giantess. It has pink teddy bears on it and a tendency to break down, which is problematic a thousand feet in the air.
Wonderfully used in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Magical Realism book One Hundred Years Of Solitude in which the gypsies bring magic carpets to show the villagers. Jose Arcadio Buendia and his son Aureliano Buendia are more awe struck from seeing ice.

Live-Action TV

In an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex takes flying carpet lessons from Justin.
Fitting with his Arabian theme (except for the train), Hikaru/MagiShine in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, and his American counterpart, Daggeron/Solaris Knight in Power Rangers Mystic Force, make use of a magic carpet for their transport.
One shows up in Charmed.

Newspaper Comics

Calvin and Hobbes once took the hall rug for a joyride. Hobbes worried about hurting the resale value. At one point they flew it by Calvin's dad's office window.

Tabletop Games

Dungeons & Dragons has a carpet of flying.
Warhammer Fantasy Battles has Arabyan Carpet (a flying carpet) as a common magic item (ie one that all factions can use)

Video Games

Sonic uses one in the Night Palace of Sonic and the Secret Rings.
- Another one turns up in Sonic Riders.
Tailors can make them in World of Warcraft and use them as flying mounts.
- Curiously, on some character models the characters look like they're surfing on it.
The hero and his friends ride in on one in Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire.
Occasionally appears as a vehicle in Dragon Quest games. Specifically in Dragon Quest V, VI, and VII.
The very point of the game Magic Carpet and its sequel Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds.
Mabinogi has two of them as cash shop flying mounts.
There are flying/magic carpets in the Wario Land 4 level called Arabian Night.
Don't forget about Pidgit in the beginning of level 1-2 in Super Mario Bros. 2. He was sitting on a Flying Carpet, and you needed to kill him and steal his carpet, so that you could cross a huge Bottomless Pit.
Street Racer, a cart racing Video Game, featured Hodja Nasreddin on a hybrid of a car with a Flying Carpet.
RuneScape has magic carpets as a form of transportation in the desert.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame uses a magic carpet ride to get from level 5 to level 6.
Super Mario 64, "Rainbow Ride" stage.
Super Smash Bros. Melee, Both the Pidgit's and Rainbow Ride's magic carpets from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 64 appeared in 2 stages.
Mario Party 5, The Magic Carpet is a vehicle in the minigame Random Ride.
In Aladdin (Virgin Games), the flying carpet shows up to give short rides in several levels, and it's the vehicle for the escape from the Cave of Wonders.
Aladdin (Capcom) also uses the flying carpet for the escape from the Cave of Wonders, and for the "A Whole New World" bonus level.
Gwonam (the "Squadala Guy") from The Legend Of Zelda CDI Games rides on a flying carpet.
- In Ocarina of Time, the Bombchu salesman in the middle of the desert rode on one.
Flight Sim Magic Carpet. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Ultima V introduced a magic carpet, hidden in the King's chambers. It returned in Ultima VII, this time having had chairs installed to sit on!
In King's Quest II, there's a flying carpet that takes you up a mountain. King's Quest VII has a magic carpet that instantly takes you to Dreamland.

Web Comics

In this Orderofthe Stick strip, the party is given one to use as quick transportation.

Western Animation

Panchito in The Three Caballeros has a flying sarape.
Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales. At one point Bugs tries to escape from a palace on a Flying Carpet.
Bugs Bunny cartoons:
- A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948) featured Mad Man Hassan's used magic carpet lot and a Flying Carpet with an outboard motor.
- Broom-Stick Bunny (1956) had a genie riding a Flying Carpet.
The The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, was used frequently as a vehicle in the Mushroom World. One peculiar example featured a biplane with magic carpets for wings.
An episode of Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers featured Prof. Nimnul using electrical flying carpets to steal valuable objects.
Often appeared in The Arabian Knights segments on The Banana Splits show.
The main characters escape from Shendu's palace on one during the 'Demon World' two-parter in Jackie Chan Adventures.