Zal and Rudabeh
After reuniting with his son, Sam made every effort to redress past wrongs. Manuchihr, too, gave the young man due regard. When Sam went off to wage war in Mazandaran, Zal, recommended to the elders, was given Sam's kingdom.
Setting forth on a royal progress to view his eastern provinces, Zal at every stage held court and called for wine, harp, and minstrelsy. In Kabul, Mehrab, a vassal King descended from the evil Zahhak, paid homage with gifts of horses and slaves.
Learning of Rudabeh, Mehrab's beautiful daughter, Zal lost his heart in love. But the affair was to progress slowly. Once even, Zal came near Rudaba's palace where Rudaba gave her tresses to Zal as a rope and he immediately climbed from base to summit.
Zal rightly feared that his father and Manuchihr would disapprove his marrying a descendant of Zahhak, and while Mehrab generally approved of the young prince, some of Zal's actions made him bristle. Zal accordingly wrote a letter to his father and requested him to agree to his marriage,reminded him of the oath he had made to fulfill all his wishes.
Sam and the Mubeds, knowing that Rudaba's father, chief of Kabul, was Babylonian from the family of Zahhak, did not approve of the marriage.
Finally, the ruler Sam referred the question to astrologers, to know whether the marriage between Zal and Rudaba would be prosperous or not and he was informed that the offspring of Zal and Rudabeh would be the conqueror of the world. When Zal arrived at the court of Manuchihr, he was received with honour, and the letter of Sam being read, the Shah approved of the marriage.
The marriage was celebrated in Kabul, where Zal and Rudaba had first met each other.
After a while, Zal and Rudabeh get married. Rostam, the great Persian hero, is born from their wedlock.
One of the feathers Simurgh gave Zal, he used when his wife Rudaba was in a difficult labour and it looked like she would lose her life as well as the unborn baby. The Simurgh appeared and instructed him to run a feather across his wife's belly like a knife. That is how Rustom was born.
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