A monster that lives in the forest is frightening Fantaghiro’s subjects. The princess, accompanied by Romualdo, goes to fight the monster and discovers that it is a mechanical contraption. Inside it is Ali Husuff, a clumsy and funny magician who has a black cat.Ali tells them he is fleeing from the Black Witch and from Isuf, the Magician of Damascus, who want him to reveal the place in which The Book of a Thousand Spells is hidden.Ali reveals a secret to Romualdo and Fantaghiro. The black cat (that doesn’t stop purring as Romualdo pets it) is actually Scheherazade, the storyteller who has been enchanted by Isuf for having refused to tell him where the book is hidden. Fantaghiro becomes very jealous because of the “affection” that the cat shows toward Romualdo.Isuf, in complicity with the Black Witch, attacks the seagull balloon with his Harppies, causing the contraption to rip open and fall into a deep pit. Ali takes his friends to a cave where a fabulous treasure is piled up beside a
