Van Worden travelled in the region many years before, being plagued by evil spirits, and meeting such figures as a Qabalist, a sultan and a Romani person, who tell him further stories, many of which intertwine and interrelate with one another.

It later also achieved a level of critical success in the United States, when filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola rediscovered it and encouraged its propagation.

A flashback then recounts the tale of the ancestor, Alfonso van Worden, who appears with two servants, seeking the shortest route through the Sierra Morena Mountains.

At an apparently deserted inn, the Venta Quemada, he is invited to dine with two Moorish princesses, Emina and Zibelda, in a secret inner room.

He meets a hermit priest who is trying to cure a possessed man; the latter tells his story, which also involves two sisters and a different kind of forbidden love.

Back in the inner room, the two princesses become amorous with Alfonso but they are interrupted by Sheikh Gomelez, who forces the captain at sword point to drink from the skull goblet.

As they ride to the Cabalist's castle, they are joined by a skeptical mathematician, who remarks, "The human mind is ready to accept anything, if it is used knowingly."

Multiple viewings of the film are recommended in order to comprehend the plot, as well as identify the appearance of certain characters before they are "introduced" by the gypsy raconteur to tell their own tales.

[10] Polish critic Michał Oleszczyk [pl] writes that, "The film remains a towering oddity more than a half-century after its premiere: budgeted at eighteen million zlotys at the time, when a regular feature cost one-third of that amount, it may be the strangest film epic of all time, with a Chinese-box narrative structure that still dazzles with its intricate, convoluted beauty.

"[11] Kristin Jones of the Wall Street Journal writes that, "As it interweaves the rational with the supernatural, The Saragossa Manuscript becomes a celebration of storytelling and the marvels of cinema.