--- title: Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 1: a wise king, a hungry Animal and a butterfly's boast — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 1: a wise king, a hungry Animal and a butterfly's boast», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: His magic ring could call up Djinns, Fairies and even a great ange --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Just So Stories, The Butterfly that St… # Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 1: a wise king, a hungry Animal and a butterfly's boast Lesson 96 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 25 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/1/) — His magic ring could call up Djinns, Fairies and even a great angel. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/2/) — Yet he was not proud: once he tried to feed all the animals in the world in one day, and a single Animal from the sea ate it all in three mouthfuls and asked when dinner would be ready. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/3/) — Suleiman was ashamed of showing off. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/4/) — He had a great many wives, and most of them quarrelled all day, which made him miserable. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/5/) — Only Balkis, his Head Queen, beautiful and nearly as wise as he, never quarrelled; she loved him and was sorry for him. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/6/) — He would not use his ring on the quarrelling Queens, because that would be showing off, so he walked alone in the garden. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/7/) — One day, after three weeks of quarrels, Balkis begs him to turn the ring and frighten the Queens, but he remembers the Animal from the sea and says no. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/10/) — Suleiman laughs till the tree shakes and calls the little Butterfly to his finger. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/11/) — Gently he asks why he told such a fib, since his stamping would not bend a blade of grass. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/15/) — His ring: turned once, Afrits and Djinns came out of the earth; twice, Fairies came down from the sky; three times, «the very great angel Azrael of the Sword» came, dressed as a water-carrier, with the news of the three worlds. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/16/) — The Animal from the sea was «the smallest of thirty thousand brothers»; it said «do you really call that a dinner? - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/17/) — Where I come from we each eat twice as much as that between meals.» - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/18/) — Suleiman: «I gave that dinner to show what a great and rich king I was, and not because I really wanted to be kind to the animals. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/19/) — Now I am ashamed, and it serves me right.» - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/20/) — In the story he has nine hundred and ninety-nine wives besides Balkis, «just to show that he was the King». - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/21/) — Having many wives was a custom of some old kings; today in most countries a person may be married to only one person. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/23/) — Both use grand, loving names for each other all through the story. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/24/) — The Butterfly's boast: «if I stamped with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace and this garden here would immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.» - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/25/) — Suleiman whispers: «Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn't bend one blade of grass. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/26/) — What made you tell that awful fib to your wife?» - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/29/) — Real life: in the Bible, Solomon was a king of Israel about 3,000 years ago, famous for his wisdom; historians are not sure how much of the old stories about him is history. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/30/) — The Queen of Sheba visits him in the Bible; Arabic tradition calls her Bilqis, Kipling's Balkis. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/31/) — Real life: a butterfly weighs less than a gram, so its stamp really could not bend a blade of grass; butterflies even taste with their feet, which have taste sensors on them. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/32/) — Real life: the biggest animal from the sea, the blue whale, can eat about 4 tonnes of tiny krill in a day, so a huge sea-eater is not all made up. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/33/) — Talk in this lesson: «cap» = a lie; «salty» = cross; «I'm dead» = that's so funny. - ← previous: [Just So Stories, The Cat that Walked by Himself, part 3: the third word, the Man, the Dog, and how cats really came to live with us](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/95-justso-cat-3-the-cat-walks-by-himself/) - next →: [Just So Stories, The Butterfly that Stamped, part 2: the Butterfly stamps, Balkis is wise, and the book ends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/97-justso-butterfly-2-the-butterfly-stamps-and-the-book-ends/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)