Sinbad is a Merchant Hero, different in many ways from Western folk and mythic heroes. There are clear cross-cultural similarities in some of his adventures (such as his meeting with a cyclops and a giant island which turns out to be a sea monster), but this Persian Sinbad is unique, valuing cleverness above all else and being rewarded with wealth.
At each stage of life, a new adventure earns him a new name evolving from the most childish, Sinbad the Horseman, to Sinbad the Adventurer, the Hero, the Husband, the Merchant, the Ambassador and finally Sinbad the Sailor.
In telling his tales to a porter, our hero passes the story of a mid-Eastern life odyssey to the next generation.