A genie is a supernatural magical spirit from Middle Eastern and Arabic folklore, also called jinn or djinn, popularized as wish-granting being trapped in lamp or bottle. In original Islamic theology, jinn are invisible beings made of smokeless fire, created before humans, with free will, capable of good and evil, living in parallel world, able to shapeshift and possess humans. They are not necessarily wish-granters in original myths. In Western adaptation after translation of One Thousand and One Nights in 1700s, genie became magical being bound to lamp, ring, or bottle, forced to grant wishes, usually three wishes, to whoever frees it, with moral lessons about greed. In pop culture, genie depicted as large, often blue, smoky, powerful reality-manipulator who can fly, grant almost any wish except killing, making love, or raising dead. Most famous genie is Disney's Aladdin Genie voiced by Robin Williams, friendly and comedic. Genies can be good, evil, or trickster, twisting wishes ironically. Types include Marid powerful, Ifrit evil, Ghul desert. So genie is mythical spirit, originally jinn from Arabic mythology made of fire, but now commonly understood as magical wish-granting entity in lamp that grants wishes with consequences.
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