Editing Mermaid (section)

=== ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ===
The ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' collection includes several tales featuring "sea people", such as "Jullanâr the Sea-born and Her Son King Badr Bâsim of Persia".<ref name=Irwin>{{Cite book|title= One Thousand and One Nights: A Companion|first = Robert | last=Irwin|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris|Tauris Parke Paperbacks]]| year=2003| isbn=1-86064-983-1| page = 209}}</ref> Unlike depictions of mermaids in other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, and the children of such unions have the ability to live underwater. In the tale "[[Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman]]", the [[protagonist]] Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land. The underwater society follows a form of [[primitive communism]] where concepts like money and clothing do not exist. In "[[The Adventures of Bulukiya]]", the protagonist Bulukiya's quest for the [[Elixir of life|herb of immortality]] leads him to explore the seas, where he encounters societies of mermaids.<ref name=Irwin />