What Am I Riddles

Question: There is a story that a man and not a man
Saw and did not see a bird and not a bird
Perched on a branch and not a branch
And hit him and did not hit him with a rock and not a rock.

[How is this possible?]

Question: What goes up and down the stairs without moving?

Question: What lightens the light and darkens the dark?

Question: When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit,
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate! But how great is her merit
If by taking my whole she effects her release!

Question: Whoever makes me can hear me, but nobody else can.

What am I?