Kay Khosrow takes Bahman Castle

Giv has done what his father Gudarz dreamed he would. After seven years of searching Turan he has found the young Kay Khosrow, son of Siyavash, and brought him and his mother Farangis home across the Jayhun (the Oxus) without a boat. The lords of Iran ride out to meet the prince, and old Kay Kavus comes down from his throne and weeps as he embraces his grandson.

Every great lord girds his belt to the new prince except one. Tus, son of Nozar, keeper of the drums, the golden boots and the Kaviani banner (derafsh-e Kaviani, the leather apron of Kaveh the smith, raised as Iran's standard), refuses. Kay Khosrow's mother is Afrasiab's daughter, and Tus wants no king from the line of Pashang, Afrasiab's father. He names Kay Kavus's son Fariborz instead. Gudarz answers that this prince crossed the Jayhun as Fereydun once crossed the Arvand, with no need of a ship, and that Tus's father was hasty and Tus is mad. Both lords call out their riders, and Iran stands on the edge of civil war.

Tus sees that a fight would serve only Afrasiab, and the two old men go to the king. Kay Kavus will not choose between a son and a grandson, since whichever he passes over will hate him. He sets a test instead. On the march of Ardabil stands Bahman Dezh, the castle of Bahman, where Ahriman (the spirit of evil) makes war all year round on the worshippers of fire, and where no one can live. Whichever prince takes it with the sword will have the throne.

Tus goes first, with the banner and the golden boots, and Fariborz at the centre of the host. As they near the castle the ground breathes fire. Spear points glow with heat and men burn inside their mail. The walls rise into the air, and for a week they ride around them without finding a gate. They come home with nothing.

A letter on a spear

Kay Khosrow rides out on a golden throne set on an elephant, then puts on his armour and calls for a scribe. The letter is written in Pahlavi with ambergris, in the style of kings, and it comes, it says, from a servant of God. If this castle belongs to Ahriman, Kay Khosrow will bring it down to the dust by God's command; if it belongs to sorcerers, his lasso will deal with them. He is not, he says, of Ahriman's making. He ties the letter to a long spear like a banner and sends Giv with it to the foot of the wall. Giv sets it against the stones, speaks the name of God, and turns his horse and gallops away.

The letter vanishes. There is a roar like spring thunder, the ramparts split and the world goes black. Kay Khosrow orders his archers to loose, and their arrows fall like hail, killing many of the divs (demons) inside. Then a light breaks through, the darkness lifts and a fair wind blows. The gate appears, and within the walls Kay Khosrow finds a wide city of gardens, squares and palaces.

On the spot where the light first shone he raises a dome reaching to the clouds, ten lassos long and broad, and installs the fire Azar Goshnasp there, with priests, astrologers and sages around it. He stays a year, until the fire temple is established. On his return Fariborz seats him on a golden throne and hails him as king, and Tus brings him the banner and the golden boots and asks his pardon. Kay Khosrow gives them back: Tus, he says, only did not want a stranger for a king. In his palace Kay Kavus takes the crown of the Kayanians from his treasury, sets it on his grandson's head and moves down to a lower seat.

The poem settles the succession by a sign rather than an argument. The castle that defeats an army opens to the prince's farr, the divine glory of kings, and one of the great sacred fires of Iran is given a royal founder.