This film is the final entry in director Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life," following O Decameron (1971) and Os Contos de Canterbury (1972).
Two deleted scenes: an adaptation of Night 309 wherein Nur-ed-Din gets drunk and an alternate ending to the tale of Princess Dunyea where she kills her father.
In typical Pier Paolo Pasolini fashion, there is also some gender-bending casting. Zummurrud's bride is played by the 13-year-old son of an Iranian hotel owner who lived near Imam mosque.
According with Ninetto Davoli, all his scenes set in exteriors were filmed only in a day, because he should go back to Rome by his commitments in another movie. His scenes set in interiors were filmed in studio in Rome.
According to Pier Paolo Pasolini's article 'Le mie Mille e una notte' in Italian Playboy, September 1973, Barbara Grandi, who plays a girl prisoner of the demon, was 13 years old during filming. In the film, she appeared fully nude, but in the sex scene she had with Alberto Argentino, an older body double replaced her.