firebird is a disaster

gistfile1.txt

SQL> create 'x' database 'x' '/tmp/xxxx' x 1 user 'SYSDBA' password '1' f '1';
Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database

http://www.firebirdfaq.org/faq135/

Apparently, if you want a connection to the superserver but you give -user/-password arguments to isql, you get the above behavior.

SQL>  create  database 'x' '/tmp/xxxx' x 1 user 'SYSDBA' password '1' f '1';
Statement failed, SQLSTATE = -902
Your user name and password are not defined. Ask your database administrator to set up a Firebird login.

But:

SQL>  create  database  '/tmp/xxxx'  user 'SYSDBA' password '1' f '1';
Statement failed, SQLSTATE = -104
Dynamic SQL Error
-SQL error code = -104
-Token unknown - line 1, column 59
-f

Clearly we don't need to bother parsing the statement to see if it makes any sense at all.

SQL>  create  database  '/tmp/xxxx'  user 'SYSDBA' password '1';
SQL> 

This works.

Firebird error messages could mean what they say or just about anything else imaginable.