The teller who bought her life with stories in One Thousand and One Nights
The central figure of One Thousand and One Nights. Legend has it that a king, betrayed by an unfaithful queen, came to hate women, and each morning after taking a bride put her to death. The clever Scheherazade volunteered to marry him, and each night told him a spellbinding story, but broke off at dawn on a cliffhanger — and the king, to hear the rest, could only spare her one more day. So night after night, until after a thousand and one nights the king was won over by the stories and her wit. With the craft of storytelling, she ransomed her own life from death.
Scheherazade’s plight is the most exquisite "frame story" in literary history: every tale she tells buys her one more tomorrow. Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba — these stories that spread across the world came from her mouth, night by night. She proved one thing: the suspense of a good story is enough to make even the coldest man loath to let it end — telling itself is a kind of power.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.