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Inspiration

The novel's central plot of two dreamers dreaming of treasure is inspired from Jorge Luis Borges' short story: Tale of two dreamers, from the 1935 collection A Universal History of Infamy.^[3] However the concept of dreamers who seek treasure abroad only to find it at home has been quite common in literature and folk tales. Other examples of similar plots can be found in:

• one of the poems of the Mathanawi titled "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad" or "The Man who dreamed of a Hidden Treasure" in Book VI, by the 13^th century Persian-Seljuq poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi;^[6]
• the tale from The One Thousand and One Nights: The man who became rich through a dream;^[7]
• How the Junkman Traveled to Find Treasure in His Own Yard (Turkish folklore);^[8]
• The Pedlar of Swaffham (English folklore published by Joseph Jacobs);^[9]
• Upsall Castle (English folklore);^[10]
• Dundonald Castle (Scottish folklore);^[11]
• Themselves (Manx folklore);^[12]
• The Dream of Treasure under the Bridge at Limerick (Irish folklore);^[13]
• The Dream of the Treasure on the Bridge (German folklore published by the brothers Grimm);^[14]
• The Dream of the Zirl Bridge (Austrian folklore).^[15]
• the fable "The treasure under the bridge" by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov;^[16]
• By Night under the Stone Bridge by Leo Perutz;^[17]

An interpretation of "The treasure under the bridge" by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is given as "The meaning of the parable is this: The fear of God is a buried treasure concealed in the heart of every one of us, but one has to journey to the Tzaddik to discover it."^[16] This interpretation is similar to Jalal al-Din Rumi's universality, as shown in another of Rumi's poems:-