A king has three sons. When the eldest goes hunting, he becomes lost in the desert and meets a faqir who tells him of a princess whose hand may only be won by answering the riddle, “What did the rose do to the cypress?” The faqir explains that his own seven sons attempted the challenge and were executed for failing. Inspired, the prince travels to the princess’s city, fails to answer the riddle, and is executed. The second brother follows and meets the same fate. The youngest brother then sets out. Upon seeing his brothers’ severed heads displayed at the city gates, he conceals his identity and lodges in a nearby village. Disguised, he enters the city and gains access to the princess’s garden, where he feigns madness and earns her protection. A maid named Dil-aram falls in love with him and reveals that an African from Waq of the Caucasus once provided the princess with the answer to the riddle. The prince undertakes a perilous journey to Waq, encountering sorceresses, demons, enchanted lands, and magical helpers. He is transformed into a deer and later restored, aided by a lion-king, rescues a princess from the Castle of Clashing Swords, and saves the young of the
Simurgh by killing a dragon. In gratitude, the Simurgh carries him to Waq. There, the king of Waq reveals that he himself is the cypress and his wife the rose. The riddle refers to her betrayal after their marriage, which had been arranged by the peris. The king had killed her lover, whose surviving companion later brought the riddle to the princess. Condemned to execution, the prince escapes by summoning the Simurgh and returns to the princess’s city, where he exposes the truth with the African’s testimony. He refuses to marry the princess, instead taking her captive and arranging for the burial of his brothers. He returns home, marries Dil-aram, the rescued princess, the woman who freed him from enchantment, and finally the princess herself, and lives peacefully with his four wives. ==Variants==