THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. Copyright © 1997 by Raymond Smullyan All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York. http://www.randomhouse.com/ Portions of this work were originally published in Discover magazine. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Smullyan, Raymond M. The riddle of Scheherazade, and other amazing puzzles, ancient and modern / by Raymond Smullyan.— 1st ed. p. cm. eISBN: 978-0-307-81983-3 1. Mathematical recreations. 2. Logic puzzles. I. Title. QA95.S4997 1997 793.7′4—dc21 96–51505 CIP v3.1 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface BOOK ONE The Grand Question of Scheherazade I The Source II In Which Is Related How Scheherazade Entertained the King on the Thousand-and-Third Night III Wherein Is Related How Scheherazade Further Entertained the King on the Thousand-and-Fourth Night IV The Thousand-and-Fifth Night, in Which Scheherazade Relates Some Puzzles of Ancient Origin V The Thousand-and-Sixth Night, in Which Scheherazade Gives the King Some Problems in Probability VI The Thousand-and-Seventh Night, in Which Scheherazade Relates Some Exploits of Some of Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves VII In Which Scheherazade Relates Some More Puzzles on This Thousand-and-Eighth Night and Concludes with a Clever Mathematical Observation VIII In Which Is Related Scheherazade’s Wondrous Account of the Mazdaysians and Aharmanites IX The Thousand-and-Tenth Night, in Which Scheherazade Gives a Further Account of the Mazdaysians and Aharmanites X In Which Is Related How Scheherazade Entertained the King with Some Special Items on This Thousand-and-Eleventh Night XI Scheherazade’s Puzzles and Metapuzzles of the Thousand-and- Twelfth Night XII The Thousand-and-Thirteenth Night, in Which Scheherazade Relates the Story of Al-Khizr XIII The Grand Question! BOOK TWO From Scheherazade to Modern Logic XIV Coercive Logic XV Right- and Left-Handed Coercion XVI The Ultimate in Coercive Logic XVII Variable Liars XVIII Chinese or Japanese? XIX Oron and Seth XX Which Personality? XXI Oh No! XXII A Mixed Bag: Some Logic Tricks and Games