Lokman

lok-man', the reputed author of a collection of fables in Arabic. He has been represented variously as a nephew of Job, a king, a tailor, a carpenter, a shepherd, and an Ethiopian slave. A tale is told of his master offering him fruit of intense bitterness. Lokman ate it without a grimace. Asked how he could do so, he replied that he had received so many benefits from his master that he could not show dislike for the only unpleasant gift he had ever had at his hand. The answer so pleased the master that he gave Lokman his liberty. Whether an authentic Lokman lived is not known. The fables resemble those of Greece and India. They were put into their present form in the thirteenth century. See Aesop; La Fontaine; Grimm