Floris and Blancheflour (French: Floire et Blancheflor) is the name of a popular romantic story that was told in the Middle Ages in many different vernacular languages and versions.
Among the pilgrims are a French knight and his recently widowed daughter, who has chosen to dedicate the rest of her life to the sanctuary.
Both women are pregnant, and the children are born on the same day, Palm Sunday: Floris, a son, to the Muslim Queen, and Blanchefleur, a daughter, to her lady-in-waiting.
However, he cannot bring himself to do the act and instead sends Floris away to school, then sells Blanchefleur to merchants traveling on the way to Cairo (called Babylon in the story), where she is then sold to the emir.
Floris eventually arrives outside Cairo, where he meets the bridge warden Daire, who tells him about the emir's tower of maidens.
Soon after, news of Felix's death reaches Cairo and Floris and Blanchefleur depart for home where they inherit the kingdom, embrace Christianity, and convert their subjects as well.
When he hears their whole tale of chaste love and long promises to one another, he demands proof of her virginity by having her put her hands in water that will stain if she has been with a man.
"Floris is an oriental tale with all the indispensable wonders of the East: a garden with a magical spring and tree, a harem, eunuchs, an emir who marries a different maiden every year, and the like.
Many of the details, such as the Tower of Maidens (i.e. harem), eunuch guards, and the odalisques derive from material carried to the west via The Arabian Nights.
Its continuing popularity is demonstrated by an allusion to it in the romance Emaré, where Floris and Blancheflour are one of the pairs of lovers embroidered on a robe, along with Tristan and Isolt, and Amadas and Idoine.
[3] "Blanziflor [Blancheflour] et Helena" is one of the songs in Carl Orff's scenic cantata Carmina Burana, coming just before a reprise of O Fortuna.