Once upon a time, there lived a wood collector with his wife. He collected wood and sold it, she milked the goats and sheep and sold the milk to the neighbours. They made a good living. There was only one thing they lacked: they had no children. The husband didn't accuse his wife, he knew how sad she was about it. The neighbours, however, took every opportunity to laugh at the wife: "Look at yourself, you don't have any children and you're jealous of us!" The woman suffered greatly from the nasty words. Whatever she did, she was always told: "You're only doing this because you don't have any children. Allah will surely punish you." Sorrowful, the woman went into her house. She knelt down and begged Allah: "Please, give me a child, even if it's just a chicken." Time passed and the woman gave birth to a chicken. She was very happy about her chicken daughter and her husband rejoiced with her. She cared for it like a human child, talked to it and looked after it when it went out into the field with the other chickens. The older the chicken got, the further it travelled. Every day it walked far out to a garden. There, however, it took off its feathers, swam in the pool of water, then slipped back into its feathers and returned home as a chicken.

But the garden belonged to the sultan and one day a guard discovered the girl swimming. He went to the sultan and told him everything. His son listened and said: "Father, let me go and see if the guard is telling the truth".

The next morning, the guard led the sultan's son to a hidden corner of the garden. Soon they saw the chicken come into the garden, strip off its feathers and swim in the water. After a while, it happily climbed out of the water, put on its feathers and left the garden as a chicken. The young man, however, had fallen madly in love with the chicken's daughter. "I want to marry her and no other," he said to his father. Then the sultan sent servants to the wood collector's house. They made their request: "The sultan has sent us. His son wants to marry your daughter."

The wood collector said: "If I had a daughter, I would be honoured, but I only have a chicken for a daughter."

"The sultan's son wants to marry her, even if she is a chicken's daughter," said the servants. The wood collector agreed. He did not want a bride gift. "It's an honour," he said.

So a great feast was celebrated and the sultan's son took the hen's daughter as his wife. People laughed at him, but he knew the girl's secret and just smiled.

The very next day, however, the chicken had disappeared. The young man searched everywhere for it until he remembered that it was probably in the garden. He rode there, hid in the secret corner again, and sure enough, the girl was bathing in the pool again. He quickly took the feather dress and instructed the guard to burn it.

When the young woman got out of the water, she looked for her feather dress. "My feather dress, where is my feather dress?" she cried desperately. Then the sultan's son stepped forward and said, "You don't need your feathers any more, because I love you more than anything." She smiled and the two embraced. The sultan's son then sent for beautiful clothes and brought the young woman back to the palace. How astonished everyone was when they saw the young woman's beauty! The sultan organised a feast to which the parents of the hen's daughter were also invited. Everyone rejoiced, sang, drank and was happy. The sultan's son and the hen's daughter lived happily ever after.

Märchen aus dem Jemen, Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: W. Daum, Märchen aus dem Jemen, Köln 1983, englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike ©Mutabor Märchenstiftung