Analysis
These three objects illustrate one of the main features of the speaking tree, and stories from the arabian peninsula area as a whole; that the fantastic world of monsters and magic is not really separate from our own normal human world, and that monsters are not too far from humans themselves.
In many medieval texts that contain monsters or fantasy elements, a clear distinction is made between the world of humans, and the world of monsters. In these stories, conflict arises when the boundary between these two worlds is breached, and conflict subsides when the two worlds are once again separated.
Take the story of Beowulf for example. Early on the story establishes two locations; the warm and inviting hall Heorot, and the drab and murky swamp where Grendel resides “among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts”(Beowulf, 105-107). Grendel is distinct from the humans, he is a monster who has been condemned by the creator himself, not something that can be reasoned with or understood. The conflict starts when Grendel crosses over into the human world of the hall Heorot, wreaking havoc. Beowulf then enters the story by killing Grendel and his mother, ending this crossing over between the two worlds. Though he ventures into the world of monsters, Beowulf is not a part of that world. He exclusively belongs in and inhabits the world of men.
In contrast, in the Shahnameh and other stories from the Arabian peninsula, the world of fantasy is constantly intertwined with the world of man. As such, fantastical elements such as monsters or magic are not obstacles that need to be overcome, but rather elements of our lives that we would navigate just like anything else.
In the stories of The Thousand and one Nights, demons, djinn, and magicians live among normal humans. They are not from a separate world; instead, their fantastical world is merely a part of the normal world. Humans and other creatures can cross in between these two worlds and inhabit one or the other or both. Some humans may only have brief encounters with supernatural forces, and others may spend long periods of time living in magical lands. Drawing further on this idea, since the fantastic and human worlds are not too far from each other, monsters and humans are not too different from each other. The monsters that the humans in the stories meet are not by any means inhuman, though they possess non-human bodies. The demon in the story of the merchant and the demon is very human; he is reasonable, and eventually is talked out of killing the merchant.
In a journal article by Ahmed K. Al-Rawi, they discuss the characterization of Ghouls in Arabic culture. Many people believed that they encountered a ghoul at some point in their lifetime, often just while going about their daily activities. There are also stories of benevolent ghouls attempting to assimilate into human society or to marry human men. These monsters, again, are not separated from human life and the human world, they are just another part of it, and can be harmful or helpful, like anything or anyone else.
Bringing it back to the speaking tree and the artifacts, the illustrations in the artifacts blur the line between the fantastic and the normal, as is the case in many stories from the Arabian peninsula. In the illustrations we can see that the world of monsters and magic is close to our own. Sekandar doesn’t have to go far to encounter talking birds and angels, and mystical trees and hills decorate the stories’ landscapes. Furthermore, many inhuman monsters, like the constellations in the book of poetry, are not creatures to be feared, but sentient, intelligent beings, who exist alongside humans. The speaking tree is another one of these monsters; it exists in both the human and fantastic worlds, at the edge of the desert at “the world’s end.” The tree is intelligent, it speaks in verse, and is benevolent, comforting Sekandar in his grief.