15 Arabic Riddles with Hints and Answers

Wa-ākilatin bi-ghayri famin wa-baṭnin, lahā l-ashjāru wa-l-ḥayawānu qūtu. Idhā aṭʿamtahā intaʿashat wa-ʿāshat, wa-in asqaytahā māʾan tamūtu.

An eater with neither mouth nor stomach: trees and animals are its food. If you feed it, it revives and lives; if you give it water, it dies.

Easy

Wa-dhī udhunin bi-lā samʿin, lahu qalbun bi-lā lubbin. Idhā istawlā ʿalā ṣabbin, fa-qul mā shiʾta fī ṣ-ṣabbi.

It has an ear without hearing and a heart without understanding. When it takes hold of a lovesick one, say what you like about the pouring.

Intermediate

Khabbirūnī ayyu shayʾin awsaʿu mā fīhi famuhu, wa-bnuhu fī baṭnihi yarfusuhu wa-yalkumuhu, wa-qad ʿalā ṣiyāḥuhu wa-lam yajid man yarḥamuhu.

Tell me what thing has its mouth as its widest part. Its son is in its belly, kicking and punching it; its cries have grown loud, but it has found no one to pity it.

Intermediate

Wa-musriʿatin fī sayrihā ṭūla dahrihā, tarāhā madā l-ayyāmi tamshī wa-lā tatʿabu. Wa-fī sayrihā mā taqṭaʿu l-akla sāʿatan, wa-taʾkulu maʿa ṭūli l-madā wa-lā tashrabu. Wa-mā qaṭaʿat fī s-sayri khamsata adhruʿin, wa-lā thultha thumnin min dhirāʿin wa-aqrabu.

It hurries along throughout its life; day after day you see it moving without tiring. As it moves, it never stops eating for an hour: it keeps eating but never drinks. Yet all that travel has not taken it five cubits, or even a third of an eighth of one cubit, or less.

Intermediate

Baṣīrun bi-mā yūḥā ilayhi wa-mā lahu lisānun wa-lā qalbun wa-lā huwa sāmiʿu. Ka-anna ḍamīra l-qalbi bāḥa bi-sirrihi ilayhi idhā mā ḥarrakat-hu l-aṣābiʿu.

It understands what is communicated to it, though it has no tongue, no heart and no hearing. It is as though the heart’s inward thought has confided its secret to it whenever fingers move it.

Intermediate

Wa-dhī awjuhin lākin-nahu ghayru bāʾiḥin bi-sirrin wa-dhū l-wajhayni li-s-sirri yuẓhiru. Tunājīka bi-l-asrāri asrāru wajhihi fa-tasmaʿuhā bi-l-ʿayni mā dumta tubṣiru.

It has many faces, yet does not betray a secret, while a two-faced person reveals secrets. The secrets of its face whisper secrets to you, and you hear them with your eye as long as you can see.

Hard

Ayā ʿajaban min ṣābirin ṣāmitin wa-lam yafuh bi-kalāmin qaṭṭu fī sāʿati ḍ-ḍarbi. Aqāma wa-lam yabraḥ makānan thawā bihi ʿalā annahu aḍḥā yadūru ʿalā l-kaʿbi.

How strange: a patient, silent thing that never spoke a word while being struck. It stayed where it settled and never left, although it came to turn around the ankle.

Hard

Wa-jāriyatin lawlā l-ḥawāfiru mā jarat ushāhiduhā tajrī wa-laysa lahā rijlu. Wa-turḍiʿu aṭfālan wa-lā hiya ummuhum wa-laysa lahā thadyun wa-laysa lahā baʿlu.

A running thing that would not run without hooves: I watch it run, though it has no foot. It nurses children although it is not their mother, has no breast and has no husband.

Hard

Wa-mā qubbatun mabniyyatun fawqa shāhiqin lahā ʿalamun yaḥkī l-malāḥata bi-ẓ-ẓarfi. Wa-awlāduhā fī baṭnihā fī jamāʿatin yakūnūna alfan aw yazīdūna ʿan alfi. Wa-yaʾkhudhuhā ṭ-ṭiflu ṣ-ṣaghīru bi-jahlihi wa-yuqallibuhā ʿasfan ʿalā rāḥati l-kaffi.

What is a dome built high up, with a little crest displaying graceful beauty? Its children are gathered in its belly, a thousand or more than a thousand. A small child, not knowing its worth, takes it and roughly turns it over in the palm of a hand.

Hard

Wa-mā ākilun fī qaʿdatin alfa luqmatin wa-luqmatuhu aḍʿāfu aḍʿāfi waznihi. Idhā unzila l-maʾkūlu janbayhi lam yuqim siwā laḥẓatin aw laḥẓatayni bi-baṭnihi.

What eater takes a thousand mouthfuls at one sitting, each mouthful many times its own weight? When the food is placed between its sides, it stays in its belly only a moment or two.

Hard

Ayyu shayʾin ladhdha ṭaʿmuhu nāʿimu l-malmasi layyinu? Kayfa lā yabdū wuḍūḥan wa-huwa fī t-taṣḥīfi bayyinu?

What tastes delicious and is soft and smooth to touch? How could it fail to be clear, when changing its dots makes it “clear”?

Intermediate

Mā ismun li-shayʾin ḥasanin shakluhu talqāhu ʿinda n-nāsi mawzūnā? Tarāhu maʿdūdan fa-in zidtahu wāwan wa-nūnan ṣāra mawzūnā.

What is the name of a nicely shaped thing that you find people weighing? You see it counted, but add a wāw and a nūn and it becomes “weighed.”

Intermediate

Ismu man qad hawītuhu ẓāhirun fī ṣurūfihi. Fa-idhā zāla rubʿuhu zāla bāqī ḥurūfihi.

The name of the one I have loved is apparent in its transformations. When a quarter of it disappears, the rest of its letters say “disappeared.”

Hard

Yā dhā n-nuhā mā ismun lahu ḥālatun yaḥāru fīhā dh-dhihnu wa-l-fikru? Lahu ḥurūfun khamsatun innamā thalāthatun minhā lahu shaṭru.

You who have understanding, what name has a condition that puzzles mind and thought? It has five letters, yet three of them are its “half.”

Hard

Yā ayyuhā l-ʿaṭṭāru aʿrib lanā ʿan ismi shayʾin qul fī sawmikā. Tarāhu bi-l-ʿayni fī yaqaẓatin ka-mā tarā bi-l-qalbi fī nawmikā.

Spice seller, explain the name of something; say it as you bargain. You see it with your eye while awake, just as you see inwardly in your sleep.

Hard