It happened, it didn’t happen, but in former times there were many padishahs. In former times, in a sieve, at the bottom of a cauldron, there lived one padishah, and he had a son.
When the son of the padishah turned seventeen or eighteen years old, his father decides to marry him. He looks for a girl to match him, and they are betrothed according to the custom of the padishahs.
They begin to celebrate the wedding. And then during the wedding one night the girl disappears.
Morning came and she was gone! They search here and there, but not a word about her! The padishah orders the astrologers to be convened; they pour sand and say:
- Oh, Shah, the girl was kidnapped by a deva and took her to Mount Kaf (a fabulous mountain at the end of the world) and is going to marry her off to his son.
- How can this be? Who can get there and bring the girl back? - asks the padishah.
- O lord, only the Shahzade himself can go there; “No one else has the strength to do this,” the stargazers answer.
Shahzadeh heard this and immediately began to ask his father to let him go:
“I’ll go free my betrothed from the hands of the devas.”
- Son, you are still a child, the devas will swallow you like one piece! And he keeps repeating:
- I definitely have to go; if I manage to save her, good; no - I don’t need another one.
The padishah sees that nothing can be done about it and lets him go. The young man mounts his horse and sets off.
You never know, he travels for a long time, through the mountains, through the valleys, on level ground, from the valleys - like a stream, from the peaks - like a breeze, spends the night, drives off, collects hyacinth tulips, smokes and drinks coffee - one day he arrives at the top of some mountain.
“I’ll sit down and rest a little,” he thinks, gets off his horse and sits down under the shade of a tree.
And then he notices two snakes: one white, the other black; one tries to swallow the other. The young man takes the stone and kills the black snake; the white snake shakes itself off and takes the form of a man.
- Shahzade, you did me good, saved me: if you have any desire, tell me, I will do everything for you.
The son of the padishah was dumbfounded with fright, and the snake-man continued:
- Don’t be afraid, I am the son of the padishah-peri. There will be no harm to you from me, and maybe even benefit.
The young man gradually comes to his senses, his fear begins to disappear, and he begins to talk about his misfortune.
— I’m going to Mount Kaf; if you can, take me there.
- Oh shahzada, we are not allowed to go there; I can only take you to the foot of Mount Kaf, and then go on your own. The devas there are very fierce: they can swallow you like one piece, but I will give you an iron shirt and three arrows. While you go there, I will wait for you and, if you return back, I will take you to the land of your father.
“Very good,” the young man replies, “bring it for my happiness; Either I get the girl, or I die myself.
Peri picks him up and rises into the air, and a little time later drops the son of the padishah at the foot of Mount Kaf; then he gives him an iron shirt, three arrows and says:
- Go, Shahzade, may your path be bright! Have a safe return!
And so the fellow goes on the road; a few days later a large mountain range appears in front of him. He approaches her and, since he is very tired, decides to sit down under a tree to rest.
Suddenly he hears a voice:
- Be careful, son of man, don’t lean on me! The shahzade looked - in front of him was a disgusting deva, flames flying out of his mouth. The young man's lips are cracking from fear.
“Son of man, neither the genie nor the son of man passes here: what are you looking for here?” - asks the dev.
And even though Shahzade is afraid, what can you do? — tells why he came.
- If you make friends with me and help me in my business, I will take you to that place.
- What is your business? - asks the young man.
“The deva who kidnapped your beloved has a daughter, I love her; I have been looking for an opportunity to get this girl for seventy years. I’m afraid to go alone, but if your bride is there, we’ll go together: you’ll save your girlfriend, and I’ll get my beloved. When we get there, the devas will start a fight with us. Take this whip: even if they hit me, you will hit my back with this whip, and I will come to life. And then our business will improve.
Having said this, he picks up the shahzade and rises up. Soon they descend into the meadow, walk a little forward, look: a well, a flame flies out of its hole.
It turns out that there was a lair of the devas.
The son of the padishah and the deva approach the well. While the shahzade is thinking about how to get down there, some noise arises at the bottom of the well. Suddenly a deva jumps out from there, sparks fly from his mouth.
“Son of man, I’m looking for you, and you came here yourself.” Attack!
- No, you attack! - the young man answers.
So they make noise, argue, and a rumble is heard from the well again, the earth begins to tremble, as if an earthquake is happening - zyngyr-zyngyr! - and a seven-headed dragon crawls out of the well.
The dragon attacks the dev, a friend of the shahzade, and the son of the padishah continues to fight the dev from the well; he puts an arrow in the bow, shoots it and hits his enemy right in the right eye, then quickly shoots another arrow, hits the left eye, and a third time right in the forehead.
As soon as the arrow pierced the deva's head, he shouted:
“Son of man, you have destroyed my soul!” - and, like a poplar, fell to the ground.
Shahzade snatches the sword from his hands and immediately cuts off his head. He looks back: the dragon is about to swallow his fellow deva. He immediately overtakes the dragon and with one blow of his sword cuts off all seven of its heads. And the dragon, like a minaret, falls to the ground.
When the deva saw the courage of his friend, he hugged him and said:
- Praise be to you! It turns out that you are brave; If you hadn’t arrived in time, I would have been in trouble. Well, now our business is going well.
And they go with the shahzade to the edge of the well, then the deva takes him on his back, and both go down to the bottom. They look, and there is a door made of iron. They enter this door: in front of them is a large garden, and in the middle is a palace, looking at it makes your eyes go blind!
Dev and the fellow enter the palace. The padishah's son opens one room, lo and behold! - and the girl he loves is sitting there.
- For mercy, oh shahzada, how did you get here? If this damned deva sees you, he will immediately swallow you like one piece.
As soon as he said: “Don’t be afraid, I’ve already sent him on a long journey!” - the girl gives praise to Allah; they hug tightly and cry.
And the dev, Shahzade’s friend, scours and scours the palace, finds his beloved, and they also rush into each other’s arms.
Then they take as much gold, pearls and precious stones as there are in the palace, the deva takes the shahzade in one hand, the girl in the other, rises into the air, flies to the foot of Mount Kaf and leaves them there.
- From now on, may Allah send you happiness and may you not lack anything! - the deva wishes them and flies back.
And so the young man and the girl are sitting there, resting, and meanwhile the son of the padishah-peri appears.
- Welcome! - he greets them and takes off into the air with them.
After a short time, he lowers them directly onto the palace of Shahzade’s father, and he turns back.
When the young man and the girl suddenly appear in the padishah’s room, he throws himself on his son’s neck.
- Welcome, my child! I've been missing you for a long time!
Shahzade sends the girl to the harem, and tells her father everything that happened to him. And so the padishah gives the order that festivities be held throughout the state. On one Friday, the young man gets engaged, and after a wedding celebration of forty days, forty nights, he becomes a young husband.
The next morning, the padishah convenes the viziers, sheikh-ul-islam, hajis and hojas and all his subjects, descends from the throne, takes his son by the hand, puts him in his place and says:
- Here's what: I've grown old, I can no longer rule the country; From now on, my son will be your padishah, do you agree?
And they answer:
- Very good, about the padishas, we agree!
Shahzade gives everyone a caftan, and from the precious stones that he brought from the deva’s palace, he gives each one one stone.
Everyone, happy, goes home, and the shahzade lives with the girl until his death and spends his time in joy and pleasure.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru