In Persia, the apple is the fruit of immortality, as we learn from the tale of Anasindhu, a holy man who lived in a wood with Parvati, his wife, speaking only thrice a year, and giving all his waking hours to meditations on virtue. The reputation he gained for wisdom and goodness made him the admiration of his country; but he had his heavenly reward also, for Gauri gave him an apple as a token that the gods wished him to live forever. He placed it at his lips, but before tasting it his wife came into his mind--he overlooked and discontented wife. She had shared the hardships of his secluded life; why not its blessings, now that they had come? But to his astonishment she refused the fruit. "Why should I wish immortality?" she asked. "I could never be happy here in the forest, seeing no other faces, sharing no happiness with others, and begging from every passing pilgrim."

Anasindhu was indignant. "If the gods wish me to live thus, is it for you to protest?" he cried. And she, being a woman, was silent. But after a little while she asked, "Can you not be as useful to the gods and more useful to men in town? Are you always to live in this wretched place? What harm to see our fellow creatures, to hear music, to eat better food, to see the palaces and temples and splendor of the capital? Oh, I would have servants and a golden carriage and a palanquin of perfumed wood, and you should be the king's minister, and all should hold you in awe and obey you. And you should build great temples and be admired."
"I cannot do these things, woman--I who beg and am poor."

"But you can sell the fruit of immortality for a price."

The holy one was shocked, yet the woman artfully showed how the money could be put, not merely to his advantage, but to the welfare of the race and the glory of the gods. "In the first place," she said, "you have nothing to prove that it is an apple of life, and if a spirit has merely made you a subject of pleasantry, you will be none the better for eating, and none the worse for losing it. If it is really a gift of heaven, you will never be happy on earth if you continue this joyless life, whereas you may glorify the gods if you sell it, and be happy in good works so long as you may live, even if you are not chosen the more surely for immortality for this service."

Anasindhu was struck by this pleading, and the end of it was that he went to the city and sold the apple to the king. But the king also aspired to holiness. He thought how selfish it would be in him to monopolize the gifts of the gods; he reflected on the charities that the pious hermit would doubtless give with the money received for the fruit; he thought of the gain in heaven that would come of renunciation. "No," he cried; "I am not worthy to be immortal." In the garden, where he went to meditate, he saw his queen. "Eat," he exclaimed, "for this is the apple of immortality. There is none in the world so worthy to live as you, none so beautiful, none of such a bird-like voice, none of such gentleness. Eat, and delight the world with your beauty forever."

The queen smiled brilliantly and took the fruit with thanks, while the king, after kissing her feet, returned to the palace. But when it was dark, and he was asleep, the queen crept forth into a shaded place whence presently came the sound of kisses. And in the morning the captain of the guards walked proudly about the garden with the apple in his hand. Yet he was not happy. He looked at the fruit with longing, for it was a queen's gift, but he remembered also a little serving-maid whom he loved more dearly than his queen. "I shall make her a goddess," he murmured. "She shall have the apple, and her beauty and goodness shall never fade."

But, lo! on the next day a girl in humble dress fell at the king's feet and offered to him a withering apple. He started when he saw it. "Great ruler," she said, "I am only a servant, but there has come into my hands this apple which, being eaten, confers immortality. I am not worthy to touch so great a gift. I pray you eat it and become as the gods, doing great deeds and worshipped by all mankind."

The king grasped the apple and demanded, "Who gave you this?"

“My betrothed, sire; the captain of your guard.

The captain was sent for. When he saw what his sweetheart had done he was much afraid, but confessed at last that the queen had given the fruit to him. At this the king, in a blaze of anger, ordered him to instant execution, and commanded that the queen be burned in the square. "And this is human grandeur!" he reflected bitterly. "Yesterday I was happy; today I am the most miserable of men." Then, calling his chief priest, he commanded him to give all his riches to the poor, dressed himself in his oldest garb, and left his kingdom forever, to sleep at the roadside and beg his way through the land. As he left the palace, Anashindu came by dressed in silks, and riding in a golden litter attended by many servants. The king extended the apple to him. "Take it," he cried, "for there is none other in this kingdom worthy to receive it. Be immortal, and, if you can, be happy."

Anashindu gladly took the fruit and put it at his lips. "There is no doubt," said he, "that the gods wish me to live forever." But as he opened his mouth a jolt of the litter caused him to drop the apple, and a dog that was running by gulped it in a mouthful. So immortality is denied to men, but in the East a dog is wandering from hamlet to hamlet, unable to die, and taking little happiness.

From: Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants, by Charles M. Skinner, c. 1911 by J.B. Lippincott Company