The seven labours of Rostam

Rostam rides out on Rakhsh, covering two days' road in one. What follows is the Haft Khan, the Seven Labours, the stages of the short road to Mazandaran.

On the first night he roasts a wild ass over a fire struck from an arrowhead and sleeps in a reed-bed that turns out to be a lion's lair. The lion comes back and decides to kill the horse first. Rakhsh kills the lion with hooves and teeth. Rostam wakes and scolds him: had he died, how would Rostam have carried his mace and lasso to Mazandaran? Next time, wake him.

The second stage is a waterless desert. Rostam staggers on foot, prays, and falls in the heat. A wild sheep walks past him; he follows it to a spring and blesses the animal. That night a dragon comes. Twice Rakhsh wakes Rostam, and twice the dragon vanishes into the dark; Rostam threatens to cut off his horse's head. The third time God lets him see it. He asks its name and gives his own: 'I am Rostam, son of Dastan, of Sam and Nariman.' Rakhsh bites the dragon's shoulder and Rostam cuts off its head.

At the fourth stage he finds a meal laid by a spring, with wine and a tanbur (lute). He sings of his own lot: Rostam the wanderer, whose gardens are deserts and mountains and whose days are spent fighting lions and dragons. A witch hears, makes herself beautiful and sits beside him. When he hands her wine in God's name her face turns black. He lassoes her, finds a wrinkled hag in the noose, and cuts her in two.

The fifth stage is a darkness without sun or stars, and beyond it green fields. Rostam lets Rakhsh graze in the young crops and sleeps; when the field-keeper strikes his feet and curses him, Rostam tears off both his ears. The local lord, Olad, rides up with his men. Rostam gives his name as 'Cloud', scatters them, lassoes Olad and offers him a bargain: guide him truly, and Olad shall be king of Mazandaran. At the sixth, before Mount Asperuz, Rostam ties Olad to a tree, rides into the camp of the div Arzhang and tears off his head. He finds Kavus, who tells him that the White Div's cave lies beyond seven mountains, and that three drops of its blood will cure the blind.

The White Div

Olad advises him to wait until the sun is hot and the divs sleep. Rostam cuts through the guards and enters a cave like hell, so dark that he must rub his eyes before he can see. Then he makes out a creature like a mountain filling the cave, its face black as jet, its hair, in the poem's words, like shir, which can mean milk or a lion. It comes at him in an iron helmet, and Rostam, for once, is afraid. His sword takes off a thigh and a leg. Maimed, the div grapples with him, and they tear at each other until the floor is mud with blood. At last Rostam lifts the White Div, hurls him down, stabs him and tears out his liver. Its blood, dropped into Kavus's eyes, gives him back his sight.

The stone king

The king of Mazandaran refuses to submit. Rostam goes as envoy and crushes the hand of the champion Kalahur until his nails fall out, but brings back only defiance. In the battle he spears the champion Juyan and lifts him from the saddle. After a week of fighting Kavus takes off his crown and prays in the dust. Then Rostam spears the king himself, who by sorcery turns into a great rock. No one else can move it; Rostam carries it to the royal tent and threatens it with mace, sword and axe until the king comes out, and Kavus has him cut to pieces. At Rostam's request Olad is made king of Mazandaran, and back in Iran Kavus gives Rostam the rule of Nimruz.