Bottle of Suleiman

The Bottle of Suleiman was introduced to Magic: The Gathering in the Arabian Nights expansion in 1993, the game's first-ever set of expansion cards. The item draws heavily from the folklore of The Thousand and One Nights, specifically referencing the tale of the fisherman who releases a djinn from a sealed brass bottle. Its inclusion in the Fourth Edition base set several years later brought the card into the core game experience for a wider audience, maintaining its original mechanical identity as a rare artifact capable of summoning a powerful Djinn creature.

The card’s illustration was created by artist Jesper Myrfors, who served as the original art director for Magic: The Gathering. His design captured the mystical and perilous nature of the object by focusing on the ornate, containment-focused aesthetic of the brass bottle. While early Magic card art often leaned into a DIY, eclectic style, the Bottle of Suleiman became a recognizable staple of the game’s early artifact catalog, noted for its unique, high-risk game mechanic that balanced the potential for a formidable ally against the chance of the bottle shattering.