The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor recap

A poor Baghdad porter is invited into the home of the rich merchant Sinbad, who explains his fortune by recounting seven voyages. Sinbad repeatedly leaves comfort for trade, only to face shipwreck, abandonment, monsters, captivity, and strange customs. He escapes a living island, uses a roc to reach a valley of diamonds, survives a one-eyed giant, flees cannibals, endures burial alive, defeats the Old Man of the Sea, and travels through a cavern to Serendib. His sixth journey makes him an intermediary between Serendib's king and Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Sent back as an envoy on the seventh, he is captured and enslaved, then wins freedom after elephants reveal their ivory burial ground. Each return leaves him wealthy but unable to resist another departure until the seventh ordeal finally cures his restlessness. Back in Baghdad, he ends the account in peace and friendship with the porter.

A poor porter rests outside a magnificent Baghdad house and complains that its owner enjoys luxury while he labors for very little. Sinbad, the wealthy master of the house, overhears and invites him to dine. He says his fortune came through extraordinary suffering and begins the story of his first voyage. Having spent much of an inheritance, Sinbad becomes a merchant and sails abroad. The company lands on what seems to be an island, but it is a huge sea creature that dives when the sailors light a fire. Sinbad is left in the water and reaches another island alone. There he helps men who tend the horses of King Mihrage and is taken into the king's service. While working at the harbor he recognizes his former ship. The captain had believed him dead but returns his stored goods, allowing Sinbad to trade profitably and sail home. He rewards the porter and asks him to return for the next account.

Despite the safety and wealth gained from his first journey, Sinbad grows restless and sails again. During the second voyage he falls asleep on an island and wakes after his ship has departed. He discovers an enormous roc's egg and ties himself to the adult bird so that it carries him away. The roc deposits him in a deep valley scattered with diamonds but inhabited by giant snakes. Merchants obtain the gems by throwing pieces of meat into the valley so that diamonds stick to them; eagles carry the meat upward, where the merchants drive the birds away. Sinbad fastens himself and a supply of diamonds to one piece, escapes with an eagle, and persuades the startled merchants to help him. He returns to Baghdad richer than before, gives to the poor, and resumes his comfortable life, while continuing his daily hospitality to the porter who hears each voyage.

Sinbad's third expedition is driven into danger and the crew loses its ship before reaching a building inhabited by a huge one-eyed man. The giant imprisons the sailors and kills their captain. Sinbad and the survivors heat iron spits, blind their captor, and flee on rafts, but the giant and his companions destroy most of them with rocks. A great serpent then kills Sinbad's remaining companions before he alone is rescued by a passing ship and eventually returns home. On the fourth voyage, shipwreck leaves Sinbad among cannibals who drug and fatten captives. He avoids their food, escapes, and reaches a kingdom where his knowledge of saddles and bridles earns the ruler's favor. Sinbad marries, then learns that when one spouse dies the survivor is buried alive with the body. After his wife dies, he is sealed in a cavern. He survives on the provisions buried with later victims, finds an animal's route to the coast, and escapes with jewels taken from the cavern. A ship carries him back to Baghdad once more.

On the fifth voyage, Sinbad's fellow merchants break a roc's egg despite his warning. The parent birds retaliate by dropping rocks that destroy the ship. Sinbad reaches an island, where an apparently frail old man asks to be carried across a stream. Once mounted on Sinbad's shoulders, the Old Man of the Sea grips him by the neck and forces him into servitude. Sinbad ferments fruit into wine, makes his captor drunk, and kills him, then escapes with visiting sailors. He profits from gathering coconuts and other trade before returning to Baghdad. His sixth voyage ends in another wreck beside a mountain where earlier victims and rich cargoes have accumulated. With supplies running out, Sinbad builds a raft and follows an underground river through darkness. People on the far side rescue him and bring him to the King of Serendib. The king honors Sinbad and sends him home with gifts and a letter for Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Sinbad delivers them in Baghdad and is rewarded by the caliph.

Harun al-Rashid asks Sinbad to return to Serendib as his envoy. Sinbad delivers the caliph's reply and gifts to the king, but on the homeward journey raiders seize the ship and sell the captives. A merchant who buys Sinbad learns that he is an archer and orders him to hunt elephants for their ivory. Sinbad kills elephants until the herd surrounds him, uproots the tree in which he is hiding, and carries him unharmed to a hidden place filled with elephant bones. He understands that the animals have shown him a source of ivory that makes further hunting unnecessary. His master is delighted by the discovery, grants him freedom, and shares the resulting wealth. Sinbad finally returns to Baghdad and tells the caliph what happened. Having survived his seventh and last voyage, he abandons further travel and lives peacefully on his fortune. The porter finishes hearing the full explanation of Sinbad's wealth and remains his friend and guest.

On his seventh journey, undertaken as an envoy for Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Sinbad completes his mission to the King of Serendib but is captured on the return voyage and sold into slavery. His master makes him hunt elephants. After the animals carry Sinbad to a hidden burial ground filled with ivory, the grateful merchant frees him and profits from the discovery without further killing. Sinbad returns to Baghdad with new wealth and reports the final adventure to the caliph. He then tells the porter that this was his last voyage: after seven cycles of prosperity, shipwreck, captivity, and rescue, he remains at home to enjoy the peace he repeatedly risked. The porter has now heard the source of Sinbad's fortune and continues to receive his host's generosity, closing the frame story with the two men on friendly terms.