I think you're misunderstanding the Wiki. It says:

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Jones is on a search for the Holy Grail. This plot device dates back to the medieval Arabian Nights tale of "The City of Brass", in which a group of travelers on an archaeological expedition journey across the Sahara to find a brass vessel that Solomon once used to trap a jinn.

It's just talking about that specific plot device, an archaeological expedition for a legendary artifact.

Plot devices in general certainly go back much farther than that. For example, the same Wiki page uses Greek myths as examples, which are considerably older than Arabian Nights.