A very nice book, a very entertaining read since it's all about the wisdom of the fool .... Teaching truths through zenlike humor.
The illustrations are whimsical and nice and a good thing to have for any fan of The Thief .... since of course The Thief grew out of Richard's aborted plan to make a film about Mullah Nasrudin (it fell apart when people related to Shah were asking for too much of a cut of the film's gross).
The Thief himself appears here in early form - in two stories as a thief, and in many other illustrations as a townsperson (there are also other characters dressed like the Thief). Other Thieflike character designs are in evidence throughout - people who look like Zigzag's courtiers. There's even a drawing which looks like The Thief talking to a very primitive Princess Yumyum.
There are artistic patterns which were used later as background design elements in The Thief (the "rose window" from when The Thief steals Yumyum's shoes is there on one page) ...
It's nice to see, and I'll go ahead and scan it. If you can find a used copy of this book for cheap somewhere, with Williams' illustrations intact, I'd recommend it.
(The copy I got sadly replaces Williams' original cover with one by another artist, but it's intact inside.)