Azar Goshnasp (Takht-e Soleyman)

Early in his reign, Kay Khosrow faces a rival claim from his uncle Fariborz. Kay Kavus sets them a test: whoever takes Bahman Dezh, a fortress near Ardabil haunted by sorcery and the heat of demons, will inherit the throne. Fariborz tries first and fails. Kay Khosrow writes a letter in the name of God, ties it to a spear and sets it against the wall. The fortress crumbles, light breaks through the darkness, and the demons are gone. On the spot, the poem says, Kay Khosrow builds a fire temple, the house of Azar Goshnasp. Later, before the great war against Afrasiab, he and Kay Kavus go there to pray.

Azar Goshnasp was real. It was one of the three great sacred fires of Zoroastrian Iran, the fire associated with kings and warriors, and Sasanian kings are said to have made pilgrimages to it on foot. The poem places Bahman Dezh near Ardabil; the historical fire stood further south, at the site now called Takht-e Soleyman, in the highlands of West Azerbaijan, and the tradition linking the two is old.

The site today

Takht-e Soleyman, the "Throne of Solomon", is a walled plateau around a deep spring-fed lake, with the ruins of the Sasanian fire temple and palace and a later Ilkhanid palace of the thirteenth century. Its modern name is later tradition, from the Islamic era. The site has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 2003. Standing by the still, blue lake, it is easy to see why the poem made this a place of light against darkness.