His mother, the queen, dismisses her son's ideas, but suggests they test his gender: first, invite Noé to dine with them, and, if he is a woman, she will eat many olives.
The third time, the queen suggests the prince, Juanillo, invites him as a sleeping companion; if Noé refuses, he is a woman.
Mariquilla bears twins, a boy and a girl, and the queen sends a messenger to deliver a letter to the prince at the battlefield.
The messenger stays the night, and the silver-bearded suitor falsified the letter with a false information Mariquilla bore two puppies.
[2] In this type, the heroine makes a vow to marry a suitor with a certain uncommon trait, which the Devil, in human disguise, fulfills, and tries to marry her; however, the heroine's talking horse advises her to run away, and both escape to another kingdom, where she takes on a male disguise; in the male disguise, she befriends a human prince and eventually marries him; later, the heroine is left alone at home when the demonic suitor returns and threatens her and her children, but the talking horse appears one more time to save her, defeating the Devil and creating a new home for her (a tower, a hut, or a castle).
[3] According to Basque researcher Koldo Biguri [eu], Italian folklorist Sebastiano Lo Nigro [de] located stories of the crossdressing heroine, her helpful horse and the flight from an unwanted monstruous suitor in Italy, Catalonia and Basque Country – which corresponds to Type C in Lo Nigro's study.
Delpech also concluded that the heroine's horse is the one that rescues her from a terrible marriage with a supernatural being and sets her up with a beneficial human partner.
[5] According to Chilean folklorist Yolando Pino Saavedra [es], in some variants, the heroine is betrothed or already married to a gentleman (who is a devil in disguise), and escapes from him in a "Magic Flight" sequence.
[6] In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, narrative researcher Ines Köhler-Zülch stated that this narrative (heroine and magic horse save themselves from demonic bridegroom) may also start as tale type AaTh 621, "The Flea": her father, the king, fattens a louse and uses its hide as a suitor's riddle; a demonic bridegroom guesses it right.
[7] Italian scholar Sebastian Lo Nigro, in his study, noted that the motif of the sequence of falsified letters harks back to tale type ATU 706, "The Maiden Without Hands".
She rides to a distant hut and rests with an old woman, who, the next day, gives the princess a tuft of sheep wool and a stack of needles.
Boligan, the horse, tells the princess to throw behind her the old woman's objects to delay the pursuit: the wool creates a mist and the needles great boulders.
Her mother-in-law writes her son a letter with the good news, but a series of forged missives force the king's mother to carry out false orders to kill her.
The horse tells her the Moorish king will come after her, but Boligan will fight him to the death; in case he dies, Iria is to take whatever she finds in his mouth.
Iria mourns for her fallen friend, gets his tongue and tosses it on the floor; a stone tower appears to house her and her children, furnished with everything they need.
[2] Researcher Marisa Rey-Henningsen collected a tale from a Galician source which she translated as The Countess's Daughter and The Talking Horse.
Even a powerful Moorish king makes a bid for the girl's hand, and threatens to kill both mother and daughter if they do not agree to it.
They gallop together across a field of dead bodies, both Christians and Moors, and the animal advises her to take its tongue in the hour of dire need.
The Moor changes into a sparrow hawk to fly over the water and reach Floriña, and the horse warns the girl to cut off its tongue.
Despite him not talking at all, Floriña begins to fall in love with him, and, one day, kisses him: the tower disappears and the man regains his speech, telling the girl a wicked fairy cursed him to an equine shape.
The tale then explains Na Dent d'Or's mother left the girl a magic horse of supernatural provenance, which always advised her.
Na Dent d'Or is stunned by this information and berates herself for her rushed marriage plans, but the horse advises her how the can escape: Barrufet with come with a full marriage cortège, which are actually devils in disguise, but Na Dent d'Or is to tell them she will ride on the horse; they will seize the opportunity to gallop as hard and fast as they can, without looking behind them.
The duo reach a distant kingdom, and the horse advises Na Dent d'Or to buy a shepherd's garments and assume a male disguise.
Thirdly, they will sleep in the garden, with rabbits hidden near their beds; if female, she will complains about the animals; if male, he will pay no mind to the hounds.
The horse and Na Dent d'Or transforms themselves to trick the prince: into a charcoal-maker and a coal furnace, then into a gardener and an orchard, and finally a church with bell tower and a priest.
A gentleman wearing gold garments (the devil in disguise) guesses it right and is given the hand of the youngest princess, named Fifine, in marriage.
The prince tells his mother he had a dream their guest is a woman, and the queen advises him to test her: to make her choose guns and weapons at the market, to have her horse trample on a piece of linen, and to take a bath in the river.
Fifine decides not to return to her mother-in-law's castle, so the mare gives her a magic cane for her to create a manor if she strikes the ground with it.
After safely escaping from the ivory-toothed man, the horse advises Isabel to dress in male clothing, and to go to another court, where she will pass her off as a youth named José.
Later, after suspecting the newcomer is truly a woman, he plots with an old lady how to unmask her: to have her choose sits at the dining table, and to join him in his bedchambers.