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Sinbad the Sailor appears in the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Persian, Arab, and Indian tales written down between the 800s and the 1400s. A merchant from the city of Baghdad in the Near East, Sinbad made seven voyages to lands and islands around the Indian Ocean. He had great adventures, survived numerous dangers, and acquired many riches during his travels.

On Sinbad's first voyage, he and his crew visited an island that turned out to be a huge sleeping whale. When they lit a fire, the whale woke up and dived underwater. Sinbad was picked up by another ship and taken home. The second voyage took Sinbad to a desert island, where he discovered an enormous egg belonging to a giant bird called a roc. When the bird appeared, Sinbad grabbed its claw and was carried away to the Valley of Diamonds. Eventually rescued by merchants, he returned to Baghdad laden with diamonds.

During Sinbad's third voyage, the hero...