Mandaean literature Oral Traditions and Folklore

#1
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY

#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA

#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS

#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA

#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER

#6--SUN STORIES

#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER

#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ

#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM

#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT

#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY

#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON

#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA

#15-- THE HAUNTINGS

#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

#17-- THE STONE-THROWING

#18-- THE KAFTAR

#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE

#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID

#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE

#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.

#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS

#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON

#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH

#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON

#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH

Oral Traditions and Folklore

#25--THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY RUSTAM AND HIS SON

The Persians wrote of this in the Shah Nameh, but their history is not the true one. Only we Subba know the true story and have told it from father to son. It is this.

Rustam of whose strength and fame you have heard was of Afghanistan. One day for the sake of the venture, he fared forth on his horse until he reached Turkestan. As he loved the chase, he hunted gazelle, zahmur, birds, and other game and lived upon what he killed. The breeze was soft, the air was the scent of flowers of the wilderness. His horse Rakhash (Mandaean 'horse') was intelligent and understood his master so well that he obeyed his lightest command and loved him dearly. Rustam took his bridle from his head and said to him (one day),"Go, eat! The grass and herbage are wholesome here and I wish to sieep."

Then he slept, Rustam, for the air was sweet, and Rakhash went to graze.

When he awoke from his sleep Rustam called his horse, but the horse came not, and though he sought him he found him not, for the animal had been stolen. His heart was straitened and his mind troubled, for Rakhash was very dear to him, being no ordinary horse, but a foal begotten by a sea-stallion, who had come up out of the sea and covered a mare which had been tethered near by on the shore. No horse bore Rustam so well as Rakhasd!

Rustam went to the king of Turkestan and said to him,
"If you do not give me back my horse, which your people enticed away, I will kill you and your soldiers." For Rustam knew that the people of Turkestan understand the speech of horses, and indeed they had enticed Rakhash away by smooth speeches, promising him sweet water and rich grass.

The king of Turkestan spoke him fair, knowing that Rustam was very strong, and said to him, "Be pleased to be our guest! Drink and rest! Please Allah, your horse will be found!"

Rustam entered and sat and drank the wine, which they offered him. Then they gave him food and a room in which he might sleep by himself. Then they told him, "Your horse has been taken by the people of Sistan."

Rustam left them, and going to Sistan, he sought his horse there, but the people of that place said to him, "Do not be wroth with us your horse is not with us.The King of Chin has it."

Then Rustam fared to Chin, and came to the castle of the king of Chin. Before it was a fountain called the 'Spring of Pearls'. A breeze blew sweetly, and trees and flowers grew beside the fountain giving perfume to the breeze. We lay down and slept by the pool, which was near the path that led to the castle.

Now the daughter of the King of Chin was a sand diviner ('arafat tidhrab raml) and took omens in the sand, and she had seen written in the sand that she should belong to no man but Rustam--he only amongst men. It was her custom to descend daily to the Spring of Pearls to bathe there, and this day also she went. She took off her clothes, went down naked into the water, and washed herself. Then she was aware that some one amongst the flowers was gazing at her, and quickly she loosed her hair, so that it fell about her like a cloak (abayah). She thought that it must be Rustam, for she knew in her heart that the eyes were his. She went near him and saluted him and said, "Are you seeking for Rakhash?" He asked her, "How did you guess?" She replied, "You are Rustam, I know it."

Now the girl was young and sweet and had refused many suitors saying, "I will take as my man only Rustam."

She said now to Rustam, "If you will take me, I can find Rakhash for you and will bring him to you!"

He looked at her and loved her, and said, "I will take you! I am glad in truth to do so."

She said to him, "Come! You must be my father's guest" And she led him to her father who greeted Rustam courteously saying "Peace be on you." Rustam answered, "On you the peace!" Then the king of Chin said to him in Pehlawani "Welcome! I am delighted to have Rustam as my guest!"

Rustam asked him for his horse, for he knew that the king of Chin had bought it from the people of Sistan, who had stolen it.

The king denied, saying, "Your horse is not with us."

Then Rustam was angered, and said, "l have certainty that my horse is with you, and if you do not give him up, I shall slay you and your men of war."

The king said to himself, 'We must use policy', and to Rustam he said, "We will look for the horse: we will ask where it is. Do not be angry. You are our guest and we wish you well. I will fry to find your horse, and, if Allah wills, it will be found."

So Rustam abode with them three days, and then he came to the king and said, "I love your daughter! Give her to me!"

The king replied, "Gladly, for a better man than you there is not in the world. And my daughter has yearned for you for a long while."

The king of Chin was well satisfied, and Rustam and the girl were happy. They called an 'alim and drew up the marriage contract, and the merry makings lasted for seven days. Guests were entertained, and night was turned into day, for there were lights in all the rooms.

Then Rustam asked his bride, "Where is my horse!"

She replied, "Fear not, I have it!"

The princess had a mare and just as she had seen Rustam and loved him, so the mare had seen Rakhash and loved the stallion. Now the mare had a foal by Rakhash and the princess had stallion and foal to show to her husband. When the horse saw his master, he galloped to him and put his nose on his shoulder, and Rustam kissed his horse and fondled it, for he loved it greatly.

Now Rustam had knowledge of the Sun, whom they named Yazdan Pak, or Khur, and he was the Lord whom they worshipped. Rustam had much secret knowledge, and in our histories it is written that whatever strength Rustam asked from the Sun, he received, according to the hour of the Sun. From the morning to noonday his strength was great, but in the afternoon his strength declined. Before the time of which I am telling you, Rustam had been in the wilderness, amongst the mountains, and in places where there were diggings, and it was during this time that he had acquired this knowledge.

So great was the strength, which God granted him that two thousand warriors could do nothing against him. Aye, the Pehlawan were wise, but he was wiser than them all! The Pehlawan were masters of knowledge, for if they prayed, no one was able to vanquish them because of the power given to them by Yazdan Pak. It happened that sometimes a king or a chief who came with an army to fight them was unable even to approach them because o this power. (((If one of our people has gone deeply into the secret doctrines, he unveils, unveils, unveils, until di! he comes upon the Most Secret Doctrine--which was theirs also. But such a man, if he speaks to you, though he may answer your questions correctly, will be silent about that inner knowledge. He is a man who does not chatter about what he sees. If I were to see a melki or an 'uthri, I should be delighted and might speak of it: but he says nothing of what he sees. He knows his Way, and he walks therein.)))

(((The Pehlawan religion and ours followed the same road at first, but we discovered new light and followed it, whilst they kept on as before. In our religion, secret knowledge must not be imparted: each one must attain to it by himself. God opens a way to those who are fitted to walk in it. Most of the people in this world have worldly knowledge, but they are sleeping. Sleeping! They walk about as if asleep, and the enlightened ones know it. But, if God sees a seeker after truth, He can wake him up.)))

Well! Rustam went to the king of Chin and said, "I want to see my father and my people." The king of Chin replied, "Go, in God's keeping but leave your wife with me, for the way is long and difficult. When your honor returns, I will give her to you again."

Rustam had an armlet set with precious stones upon which talismanic writings were inscribed. He understood these inscriptions, but no one else, for these writings in the rubies and emeralds and diamonds on the armlet were secret. He gave this to his wife, saying, "If you bear me a son, put this on his arm. If you bear me a daughter, and she is ever in need, she has only to show this to a rich merchant, and he will furnish her with whatever she wants, for the armlet is worth a kingdom."

Rustam journeyed away and returned to his people, leaving the armlet with his wife. The girl was pregnant, and, when her time was come, she brought forth a boy: The boy was a fine child, and when he was three he could wrestle with bays older than himself and overthrow them, far he was strong like his father. When he was seven, he was so good a horseman that not even the Pehlewan could match him in horsemanship. He was fond of riding out into the desert.

When he asked his mother, "Mother, where is my father, Who is he?" she did not like to tell him that Rustam his father had left her, so she said, "Your grand- father is your father-does he not love you tenderly?" and she bade her father let the boy believe this. But when the lad was fifteen, he came to her and constrained her to tell him the truth, saying, "You must tell me now. Who was my father?"

She replied to him, 'What can I tell you but the truth. Your father is Rustam of Afghanistan."

When he heard that, the boy went to his grandfather and asked for an escort of ten thousand soldiers so that he might go and find his father. We rode on the foal sired by Rakhash out of his mother's mare. The manner of that foal's birth was this: it wan so large that its mother was unable to bring it into the world, and, as they were afraid that it would die, a surgeon came and opened the belly of its mother. So it came into the world, and was as like its sire as a portrait is like the original.

The lad had with him an old soldier who remembered Rustam well. He took leave of his grandfather and kissed him, and his mother kissed him and wept over him, for she loved him dearly. The boy embraced her and wept also, but said, "Do not fear ! I shall return!"

But the mother said, "O Yazd! I cannot endure to let you go for I desire your face before me morning, noon, and night."

The youth said, "And I wish to see my father morning, noon, and night, and you also! I wish to have you both together before me, so that we may be glad always."

Then he kissed his mother and went away, saying, "If God wills, I will return and bring my father with me." Before he set off, she put the armlet on his arm, saying, "If your father sees this, he will know you for his son."

He marched away, he and his company, for there were ten thousand horsemen with him. When they came to country, the sultan who ruled it gave the lad his allegiance and became his vassal. Then they went on, taking soldier from that country with them into the next. So his army grew and grew, and every country through which he passed was under his hand and he was its liege lord.

For three years the stripling and his army went on their way, conquering and fighting. None could stand before their strength. At last they came to the borders of the land of Iran. The youth sent to the Shah, saying, "Give me your allegiance, become my vassal, or I shall fight with you!" The Shah of Iran knew that Yazd and his army had come from the land of Chin conquering the countries through which they had passed, and that all the kings of those countries had became his vassals, but the Shah could not give up his country just for the asking, so he prepared to fight. There was a mighty battle, and the Pehlewan went against the foreign army, matching into combat thousands at a time. The Shah, the Sultan of Iran sent then for Rustam, for he feared that Yazd would prevail and take his throne from him.

In the morning, Rustam came galloping on his horse to the Shah and the Shah said, "You must fight with this prince and prevent him from seizing my throne."

Rustam waited until the night came, and then he disguised himself as a darwish (and the dress that he wore was white and like our rasta), and he asked of Yazdan Pak that he should be invisible, so that he might pass unnoticed through the camp. It was so, and he passed through the camps and no man saw him, not a soldier of all the thousands. There was a full moon and the light was bright. Four ranks of soldiers stood sentinel by Yazd's tent and at the four pomegranates (i.e. four knobs of the tent-poles) of Yazd's pavilion four guards were posted. Rustam passed them all, but, though they heard footsteps and gazed, they saw no one, because Rustam was invisible by the power of Yazdan Pak.

Rustam climbed the tent rape to the top of the pavilion and there he cut an opening with his dagger and descended into the tent. The tent was lit by the effulgence of a large pearl which was lying by Yazd as he slept, and this was a durrah a present which Yazd was bringing for his grandfather Zal , Rustam's father, from his other grandfather, the King of Chin. This Zal was also a man of strength and wisdom, for Rustam's people were all distinguished for wisdom and strength. They lived in the wilderness, disliking the noise and fret of men, for they loved to breathe the sweet air and to behold the face of Yazdan Pak. They were people of knowledge.

When Rustam had descended and gazed upon the Lad, he saw how handsome he was, and began to love him. His heart beat strongly, and he was deeply moved by a feeling of affection. The boy was sleeping, and it had been his first intention to wake him from sleep, kill him, and go. That had been his first thought. But, when he beheld him sleeping he imagined he saw the full moon before him, and remained bemused, gazing at his beauty. He said to himself, "I cannot muse this Pehlawani from his sleep to kill him! I cannot slay him!" So he stuck his dagger into the pillow on which the lad slept, as a sign that he had been able to kill him but had refrained. Then he left him and went out.

In the morning the lad woke and saw the dagger in the pillow beside him and the rent in the tent. He called his generals and officers and showed them the rent and the dagger saying, "Come! Look! What is this! Why did a man enter my tent and refrain from killing me? Why did not the soldiers slay him? How was it that they allowed a man to enter my tent?"

They questioned the guards, saying, "Saw ye nothing! Saw ye no man?" They replied, "We heard a noise as if one passing, but looked and saw nothing." The prince said to his advisers, "What say you to this, O Wuzara."

An old, wise wazir answered him, "He who came must have been a master of knowledge which enabled him to be invisible."

And the lad was troubled about this strange thing that had happened. When he went out and looked at the tents of the enemy, he saw amongst them a new, green tent, and he remembered that his mother had told him that his father used a green pavilion. He mounted his horse and galloped up on to a hill whence he could see all the tents.

Rustam put on his disguise again, and mounted his horse and galloped to see who was the horseman who stood watching on the hill. When he came up to him, the lad saluted his father and said to him, "Is not your honor Rustam!"

Rustam's heart went out to the boy and he felt tenderness for him; But he replied, "Rustam! Difficult for you to see him! I am a darwish."

The boy said, "If you be Rustam, I beg you to tell me with truth."

But Rustam, fearing an ambush and knowing that they sought his life, denied that he was Rustam, and the more he denied, the deeper the love that he felt for the lad- and his eyes betrayed him, for tears flowed from them.

Now the soldier who knew Rustam had been taken prisoner and brought to the Shah, and he had told the Shah that the stranger who led the invading army was Rustam's son. When he heard that, the Shah was afraid 'for', thought he, 'if Rustam and his son be reconciled, they will be stronger than us ail, and will take my throne from me! Let one kill the other." and he bade the old soldier hold his peace and said no word of what he had learnt from him.

Meantime, Rustam cried to the boy, "I am not Rustam. I am a darwish! Go back to your people, for, if Rustam comes, he will kill you."

The lad, beholding the noble face of the darwish could not believe, and still insisted, saying, "Thou art Rustam! Thou!"

Rustam said, "Never believe it! I am not Rustam. If you think that I do not speak the truth and want to do battle, we will wrestle together."

The lad answered him, "Good! Dismount!"

Then the gaze of the armies, and of the Shah, and of Zal, who was with him, fell upon them. The lad's army stood round the one side of the plain and the Shah's on the other, to watch the combat.

Rustam and the lad dismounted and began to wrestle each striving to throw his opponent to the ground.

Now Zal the previous night had dreamt a dream in which he had seen Rustam with his right arm cut off.

The two began to wrestle and to struggle. The lad was very strong, and he gripped his father and threw him. Then he drew his dagger, but the Pehlewan who stood by said, "No! It is not custom to kill at the first throw! The loser must be thrown three times."

When Rustam fell, Zal, his father, was alarmed, fearing that the youth would conquer and seize the kingdom. But the ruler of Iran laughed to himself and said within his heart, "Who but Rustam's son could have thrown Rustam!' He kept counsel, however, hoping that both would be destroyed.

Zal saw the Shah smile, and asked him, "Why do you smile when we are downcast?"

The Shah replied, "I laughed because God always creates a stronger than the strong."

Then ZaI went to Rustam and said, "Last night I had an evil dream about you. I saw in my dream that your right arm was cut off!" And he urged him, saying, "Rule yourself! Be on your guard!"

Rustam went to a spring, which, like the other, was called 'Fountain of Pearls', and he took off his robe and washed it, and abluted himself, standing towards the north and praying with his face turned to the right side, in the direction of the sun, where Shamish and the ten melki with him rule the day. Then he put an his newly washed rasta and he prayed to Melka Ziwa and Yazdan Pak. Yazdan Pak is the Pehiawi name for Shamish, for the Pehlawani worshipped in the ancient fashion of the Subba.

And this is what Rustam prayed "Give me power from thyself to throw this lad to the ground!" For those who know receive such strength from the sun that they can wade through earth as if it were water.

The lad Yazd said to those about him, "Why do not they send Rustam against me! Why do not the Pehlewan send me Rustam, the hero, so that I may wrestle with him?"

The Shah of the Iranians laughed again, and those with the boy said, "Da you laugh at us!"

The Shah said to them, "You cannot throw this man any more, for when he has prayed he is invincible, and whatever feat he tries to perform, he is able to do it."

Rustam returned to the combat, and his breast was high and he walked confidently. He said, "Be pleased to come on. Let us wrestle! Let us match ourselves one against the other."

Then they descended into the plain and closed together. The father seized the son, and hurled him to the ground with such force that his belly was rent.

Meanwhile Zal, uneasy because of his dream, had begun to recite spells, and put a Simugh's feather into the fire so as to force the Simurgh to appear.

After he had been hurled to the ground by his father, the youth opened his eyes and said, "Why have you slain me thus quickly! Did you not say that the victor must throw his opponent three times before killing him? Why this trickery? Have you no fear of my father! When he hears how you slew me, he will kill you though you were a bird of the air or deep in the earth! He will find you out wherever you be. Where will you hide from him?"

Rustam said to him, "Who is your father?"

Answered the youth, "My father is Rustam."

Said Rustam, "Thy father is Rustam?"

Replied the lad, "Aye, and this is his token and sign", and he showed him the armlet.

Then his father seized upon a large stone and beat his head with it, for he was mad with grief. Seeing this, Zal wondered, "Why does Rustam beat his head!?" and the soldiers who beheld it were amazed. Zal, wondering greatly, continued to read his spells. He approached Rustam, who cried to him, "I have slain my son!"

Zal said, "This is what I saw in my dream! But the Shah has a salve which will heal any wound!"

They bore the lad to the Shah and said, "Give us same of your salve."

The Shah replied, "There is none left, I have none." For he did not wish to give it to them.

As they were thus, the Simurgh flew to ZaI and she said to Rustam, "What, Rustam! Hast killed thy son!"

Rustam cried to her, "l am thy suppliant I am thy suppliant! Find me a means of escape from my deed."

Now the Simurgh has this gift from God, that, if she licks a wound, it will heal. Just as the Ayar (pure, unpolluted air) comes from God, her breath comes from the Breath of Life, and her breath kept the soul of the boy in his body. The strength that she gave him was from the Realm of Light, and he returned to himself, and said to her, "I spoke with my father, but he denied himself. At first I overthrew him, but they said it must be three times. He went I know not whither, and when he returned, he threw me to the ground and broke my belly."

She said to him, 'Thy father's mind was darkened. How was it that he knew you not?"

The lad said, "This is from God!"

The Simurgh said, "Do not fear! I will heal you and you will be as strong again as before, but you must not trouble or be anxious.'

Rustam said to the Simurgh "I am thy suppliant! Kill me, and let the lad be cured!" and he called to the Pehlewan to slay him.

The Simurgh said to Yazd, "Fear not! You shall be cured, but Rustam must carry you for a whole year on his head. Every Sunday I will came to give you strength so that you may live without food.

After an hour, the lad lay like one asleep. His blood worked. (See, what knowledge the Simurgh had from God and what marvels she could perform!)

During that hour he was able to converse, and talked with his grandfather and told him how he had come, saying, "What will my mother think! For when I met my father, it was thus that he treated me, and it was she who sent me hither. And from Chin to Iran every nation is under my hand!" For an hour he was able to talk thus, and then he fell, as it were, into a deep sleep. Zal wept, but the boy could speak no more. The Simurgh said to him, 'Do not weep! Do not be fearful, the boy will recover after a year!"

Said Zal, "From now to a year is a long tlme! How shall I endure being parted from him for so long a period!"

Rustam said to his father, "If you talk like this, I shall kill myself." It was God's will that it should be thus, though it was hard. Gladly will I carry him on my head."

They put the youth in a box. Rustam's daughters came to kiss him and said, "We shall see him well in a year, perhaps." And the Simurgh comforted them, saying! "Do not weep." For the Simurgh is a spirit, not an ordinary bird, and her power comes from Simat-Hei (Simat- Hiia--'Treasure of Life'), who is with Melka Ziwa.

Rustam placed the box on his head and said, 'I will carry him as long as I have strength, longer than a year if need be?" He put on his rasta and went into the wilderness, carrying the box on his head. The Simurgh after she had licked the youth all over, flew away, bidding Rustam meet her on Sunday. Rustam fared forth into the desert, carrying the boy on his head, and lived upon what he found there, on locusts, honey, fruit, and roots.

The Simurgh -- had she not said that she would come every Sunday--fulfilled her promise. There is a region called at-Tib near the river Karun, and in that place, which once belonged to the Nasurai and Mandai, there are no harmful things such as scorpions, snakes, or mosquitoes. The air is pure there, and there is a charm on the place, which keeps all harmful creatures away. The Arabs know it, and their 'ulama speak of this place of healing with praise. Its name was not formerly at-Tlb but was called 'Matha d Nasurai'. Now before she hew away the Simurgh had bidden Rustam meet her there, in that spot, for the prayers and devotions of the Nasurai had made the place pure and had banished all evil things and all creatures of the Darkness from it. He went, therefore, and she came and licked the boy with her tongue and gave him strength from the Ayat Hiwel Ziwa.

Rurtam looked at the Simurgh and when she said, "Do not fear! He will be cured!" his heart was lightened.

So it was a year, and the Simurgh came every Sunday to that place, and licked the boy and gave him strength. When the end of the year came, the Simurgh was very glad and joyful, and Rustam's heart rejoiced when she to him, "Today your son will be as well as he was before, and better!"

She came, and she prayed to God with her wings outspread. She prayed to 'uthri and to the melki and to Shamish. Then she spread her wings on the lad and gazed at him. Di, di, di, di! softly, softly, his soul took strength.

Rustam looked like one in a dream, with his arms upraised, glad, but gazing.

Di! the lad received his soul, and his paghra (earthly body) began to function. He was stronger than before his eyes began to sparkle and to see, and he began to smile into the face of the Simurgh. He sneezed and sat up, and in that sneeze his soul returned to him wholly; for, lady, if a person falls ill and his soul is but lightly attached to him, and he sneezes, his soul will come back to him.

Yazd sat up and, just as a serpent sloughs her skin, he cast his, and came out clean and beautiful. He rose and fell before the Simurgh and kissed her, and said, "l am very grateful to you for keeping me in this world!" Many persons had gathered together that day to see this miracle worked, and from that time the place was called at-Tib. To this day it is thus called.

Rustam and Yazd went to Zal, who seized the lad and embraced him, asking him, "Are you well!" and the boy replied, "l am well!'

For a whole year there was rejoicing, and by common wish the lad was made Shah, and seven treasures were given to be spent in charity as a thank offering for his cure.

Now, news had reached the lad's mother that Rustam had killed his son. She was full of black thought, and she took one hundred thousand soldiers from her father and rode with them until she reached the borders of Rustam's country. Rustam received news that an army was approaching to take the kingdom, and he disguised himself as a darwishh and went early one morning to see what their leader was like.

His wife wore a veil, which covered her completely except for her eyes--for such was their custom--and she sat on her horse. He knew her not, but as soon as she saw him she knew him for her husband in spite of his disguise, and tried to strike at his head with a mace. Rustam said to her, "Does one Pehlawani strike another without notice and without cause! It is not done!"

She replied, "l have cause to strike your" and he recognized that she was not a man by her voice, and said to her, "You are a woman, and not a Pehlawani, and what is the reason that you try to strike me and kill me!"

She began to weep and was unable to lift her hand further against him, for she loved him greatly.

He brought his horse close to her and she said to him, "You killed Yazd!"

He answered, "Do not weep! He lives! He lives, and all is well."

She uncovered her face and said, "He is dead: how can he be well! Where is he?"

The Pehlwaniya went to bring Yazd.

When they said to him, "Your mother is here with an army and she wishes to see you", he galloped swiftly to her, for he longed to see her. She saw him as he was still far off, and galloped to him, and then both dismounted and rushed together. She seized him in her arms and they embraced each other.

She cried, "Are you really Yazd and not a dream!"

He said, "I, myself, and no dream!"

Then Zal came riding in a howdah on an elephant, and all mounted into the howdah and returned; Rustam, his son and all of them. The princess kissed Zal's hand and the old man was delighted with her. All were happy, very happy--how happy!

The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937 (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) pages 369-385
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar