Fantaghiro, accompanied by Romualdo, goes to fight a forest monster that was frightening her subjects and discovers that it is a mechanical vehicle. Inside it is Ali, a magician who has a black cat. Ali tells them he is fleeing from the Black Witch and from Isuf, the Wizard of Damascus, who want him to reveal the place in which the Book of a Thousand Spells is hidden. The black cat is actually Scheherazade, the storyteller who has been enchanted by Isuf for having refused to tell him where the book is hidden...
