Ileana Simziana
During a quest of obtaining the Holy Water she is hit by a curse of a monk that causes her to transform into a man - Făt-Frumos (Prince Charming figure), who marries Ileana in the happy ending.
The youngest daughter goes on a journey with her father's old horse, and defeats him on three bridges, first as a wolf, then as a lion, then as a twelve-headed dragon.
The girl arrives at the court of a "great and strong emperor" and he tells her to rescue Ileana Simziana, his daughter, who had been kidnapped by the giant.
The youngest daughter rescues her, and the emperor asks her to retrieve his herd enchanted mares, the girl succeeds in this spree.
Then Ileana Simziana asks the emperor's daughter to bring the Holy Water kept in a small church above the Jordan and guarded by nuns who neither slept in the day nor in the night.
The girl succeeds but the monk who takes care of the church prays to God and asks him if the thief is a man to make him a woman and vice versa, so that the princess becomes a prince - Făt-Frumos.
[1][5] Rainer Wehse, in an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, recognized that the tale type shows great variety in motifs and in narrative sequences, but they gravitate around a common core: the transformation of a woman into a man.
[4][13] Variants were also "sporadically" collected in Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia), in Iberian tradition (Spain, Portugal) and its former colonies (Cape Verde Islands, Mexico and Chile).
The elders dress in male clothes and cross the bridge, but an iron-toothed wolf frightens them back to their kingdom.
On this third task, the she-knight steals the sword, and God Himself and Saint Peter decree that she is to become a man, since she was already dressed in masculine clothes.
[17] Author and folklorist Grigore Botezatu [uk] published a Moldavian tale titled Prince Theodor and the Magic Stag.
The Emperor invites his son-in-law to take part in a challenge to jump over a ditch and to tame his wild boar.
Impressed with his abilities, the Emperor sends his son-in-law for a magical water and a pumpkin hung on a chain between heaven and earth.
Later, she rides to a third kingdom where the king has set a suitor challenge: if anyone can jump over a moat and fetch a golden apple, they shall marry the princess.
In this entry, the heroine disguises as a soldier, marries a princess and eventually is transformed into a man by an old couple's curse.
[26] In a Lithuanian tale collected by August Leskien and Karl Brugmann with the title Ápė bajóro dukterį, katrà į vaiską iszëjo or Von der Edelmannstochter, die Soldat wurde ("About the nobleman's daughter who became a soldier"), a nobleman has nine daughters and laments the fact that he does not have sons.
[28] Armenian author and historian Marietta Shaginyan located tales about a woman transforming into a man in Armenia.
[29] Author Charles Downing translated and published an Armenian variant tilted The Girl who Changed into a Boy.
In the story, it's the king's daughter, who the "hero" was married to, that orders her father to set the crossdressing knight into the perilous quests to dispose of "him".
[30] The tale is also reported in the Georgian folktale index as tale type ATU 514, "The Shift of Sex": the king's youngest daughter takes her father's place in masculine clothes; she works for another king, who sends her on errands or quests; the heroine's third quest is to go to the petrified kingdom, where a witch turns her into a man.
The youngest sister, who possesses omniscient powers, knows their guest is a girl, but predicts that "he" will become a man in the future, and advises her to choose their lamest horse the next morning.
[35] In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, both scholars grouped tales about a woman-to-man transformation under one type: TTV 97, "Der weinende Granatapfel" ("The Weeping Pomegranate"), with 13 variants.
[36] Turkologist Theodor Menzel [de] translated a Turkish variant titled Die Geschichte von von dem weinenden Granat-Apfel und der lachenden Quitte (translated into English as "The Story of the Crying Pomegranate and the Laughing Bear").
Time passes, and the padishah sets a date for the "boy"'s circumcision as a rite of passage, but "he" manages to delay the ceremony for two years.
Lastly, the red-clad maiden tells her husband-to-be to get the weeping pomegranate and the laughing quince from a distant garden - a trap set by the son of the Padishah of the Peris.
[38] Turkologist Ignác Kúnos collected a very similar variant from Adakale with the title Die Geschichte von dem weinenden Granat-Apfel und der lachenden Zitrone ("The Story of the weeping pomegranate and the laughing lemon").
[39] Author Somnath Dhar published a Turkish tale titled The Magic Mirror: a king does not have any children, but prefers to sire male heirs.
The "prince" agrees to carry out the betrothal, and plans to ride their horse to regions unknown, but promises to return one day.
[40] Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons collected a variant from Cape Verde Islands, from informant Antonio d'Andrade from Fogo.
However, Bonito's mother, the queen, suspects Marco is a woman, not a man, and devises tests to check her identity: to plant a grapevine and smash the grapes for wine; to go to a farm and pick a bunch of fruits; to bathe in the sea.
