What is the story of The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot?

The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot is a story from the Islamic Golden Age, a time when the Muslim world was flourishing in science, art, and literature. It is a part of the Persian literature and was written by a Persian writer named Ubayd Zakani. The story revolves around a rich merchant who buys a parrot for his wife as a gift. The parrot is not just any ordinary bird; it can talk and is quite clever.

One day, the husband goes on a journey and leaves his wife in the care of the parrot. The parrot warns the wife of the husband's infidelity and tells her that he is in love with a slave girl. Shocked and heartbroken, the wife asks the parrot how she can catch her husband in the act of adultery. The parrot advises her to pretend that she has fallen ill and ask her husband to bring the slave girl to the house to care for her.

The plan works, and the wife catches her husband in the act. The husband pleads with his wife for forgiveness, and she agrees to take him back on the condition that he kills the parrot. The husband, torn between his love for the parrot and his desire to be with his wife, decides to spare the bird and lie to his wife that he has killed it. But the parrot, being clever, overhears the conversation and flies away, never to be seen again.