Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights is a book that appears in Sonic and the Secret Rings and is a major part of the game's story. It is a storybook, containing a collection of several classic, fictional tales, such as "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", and other stories with famous characters such as King Shahryar, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor.

Description
While appearing as a regular storybook, the stories found within the Arabian Nights have spawned an alternate reality, the world of the Arabian Nights. In this world, which is composed of all the Arabian Nights' stories, the places and characters from the Arabian Nights' stories are real and brought together, making this reality a reflection of the stories themselves.

During the events of Sonic and the Secret Rings, however, one of the book's characters, the Erazor Djinn, began absorbing the Arabian Nights' inscriptions, thereby absorbing the power of the book itself, with the intention of taking control over the world of the Arabian Nights and eventually enter Sonic's world as well. As a result, not only had the world of the Arabian Nights begun to vanish, but the Arabian Nights storybooks' pages began to turn blank as well. If the Erazor Djinn brought an end to the world of the Arabian Nights, the stories in the books would be lost forever.

To stop Erazor, Shahra, the Genie of the Ring left to find the "Legendary Blue Hedgehog", who was foretold could save the Arabian Nights. In the real world, Sonic the Hedgehog, who had fallen asleep while reading the Arabian Nights, was awakened by Shahra, who believed Sonic was the one meant to save the Arabian Nights. After presenting the declining state of the Arabian Nights and the threat the Erazor Djinn posed to his world, Sonic agreed to help and ventured into the world of the Arabian Nights.

After many ordeals which left over half of the Arabian Nights' pages blank, Sonic defeated Erazor. Then, by using the evil genie's own Magic Lamp, Sonic made Erazor restore the Arabian Nights' stories and the book back to normal. With the Arabian Nights at peace, the story about "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" written in it was changed into "Sonic and the Secret Rings", as the world of the Arabian Nights recognized Sonic's participation in its stories.

Real World Reference
The Arabian Nights is directly taken from the real-life storybook, One Thousand and One Nights, where the Arabian Nights was the book's title when first shown in English language in 1706. It features a collection of several stories gathered from West, Central, South Asia and North Africa, with the tales themselves tracing back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature, and has been over centuries in the making.

The main stories concerns a King Shahryar and his new bride. The king is shocked to discover that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her executed: but in his bitterness and grief decides that all women are the same. Shahryar then begins to marry a succession of virgins, but then executes them each morning before they are given a chance to dishonor him. Eventually, the vizier cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. This cycle then keeps going on for 1,001 nights. In the end, King Shahryar decides to spare her life altogether and they live the remainder of their lives in happiness.

Trivia

 * The real world book was written in Arabic, based on a compilation of local legends that are of Persian, Indian, and Egyptian origin. The letters in the Arabian Nights as seen in the game are not Arabic.
 * The door leading into Erazor Djinn's chamber is presented on the Arabian Nights' book cover.