This is a story in which authentic, historical characters meld imperceptibly into a world of fantasy. While the backdrop of the tale is the launching of the Third Crusade, all is veiled in a cloak of Middle Eastern and Mediaeval mysticism.
Salem, the highly trained and intellectually advanced son of Sinbad, the sailor, leaves his home in Basra, sailing down the Tigris, and takes to sea, for the first time at the age of seventeen. He soon becomes an accomplished and inquiring navigator.
Before long he realises that he has inherited exceptional powers from his grandfather. Throughout his many adventures including shipwreck and near drowning he exercises these powers in a variety of circumstances.
It is a fascinating time in the history of the world, as the west explores ever further east, seeking a sea-passage, to trade with India and China. At the same time the Papist west clashes with the Islamic rule of Saladin in the Middle East.
Salem becomes embroiled in both of these ventures and it is while he is crossing the Mediterranean Sea, that he encounters Princess Berengaria, on her way to Acre for her marriage to Richard Coeur de Lion.
Salem and Berengaria find that they are inextricably spiritually linked and this leads them into mystical experiences that the reader can only wonder at. The story carries the flavours, scents and magical aura of the Arabian Nights woven with mystical fantasy and embroidered with a thoughtful sprinkling of philosophy.
