[6] These riddles overlap with and blur into the literary genre of wasf (detailed, metaphorical description), usually appearing in the opening section (nasīb) of a qasīdah.
One example is this anonymous one, cited by Shams-i Qeys in his Kitāb al-mu‘jam: What is it that tears into small pieces whatever falls in its toothless mouth?
The earliest is ‘Unṣurī's eleventh-century Vāmiq u ‘Adhrā,[14] but the one most clearly conforming to the riddle genre occurs in the renowned Shāh Nāma, when Manuchehr asks six Zoroastrian priests to test the wits of Zāl in his suit for Rūdāba.
[15] These are less obscure than the descriptive riddles, tending to feature metaphors and tropes which anyone familiar with Persian poetic conventions could be expected to recognise.
For example, in the Shāh Nāma (taking just one variant of a text that varies dramatically from one manuscript to another), Another priest said: 'O proud warrior: there are two noble and fleet horses One of them is like a black sea, the other glistens like white crystal.
Zāl answers this riddle as follows: The two running horses, black and white that cannot catch each other in the race: Know, O puzzler, that they are night and day, in order that you may feel puzzlement.
[16] A very specific type of riddle appears in the twelfth century, in ethico-philosophical epics, in a form probably invented by ‘Uthmān Mukhtārī, who used it in his Hunar-nāma: the riddle comprises ten couplets posing ethical questions, followed by two couplets in which the poet delivers his answers.
[17] One example is the following riddle (Hunar-nāma couplets 343-52): He said: 'What then is that yielding twig, the cloud of prosperity and the sun of liberality, The face of generosity and the body of magnanimity, the essence of pleasure and the substance of gaiety, The title of confirmation and the letter of conferral, the source of sustenance and the Fountain of Life, The source of generosity and the origin of reward, the ocean of excellence and the mine of bounty, The ornament and beauty of the seal and the dagger, the dwelling and haven of victory and conquest.
The narrator provides the following solution: I said: 'This is the hand of the free-giving king, Lord of the world and the kingdom's master.
'[18] Medieval Persian literature also attests to numerous qit‘as (quatrains) posing varied, often occasional, tests of wit.
These conundra are in verse, do not include an interrogatory element, and involve clues as to the letters or sounds of the word.
ʔán číst ke xæfáš mesálæst bæ róz dær xɪlwǽte šæb hæmnæfáse gɪriyǽʔo sóz mumindÍlo safitǽno ʔæfróxtæ róx šǽb xézo sæhærnɪšíno májlɪs ʔæfróz šǽm What is that which is bat-like during the day, In the peace of evening is companion to weeping and burning pain, Heart of wax and transparent body and bridge face, Rises in the evening, rests in the morning, and [is] lively company.
A candle (Afghanistan, rhyme aaba, following the quatrain pattern known as čar bayti also used in folk lyrics.
A worm[28] (Afghanistan, single phrase) Scott also records a riddle-game of a highly formulaic kind from Afghan informants.
The speaker (S) requires the hearer (H) to guess a real-life family of their acquaintance by enumerating its members, concluding with the formula 'ešan zænu šuy' ('they, wife and husband') on the pattern of this example:[29]
S: čɪstan čɪstan čís H: dær xáne kís S: dær xané an šǽxse ké dú bačǽ darǽ yǽk doxtǽr ešán zǽnu šúy H: [gives the name of some family member meeting this description] S: A riddle, a riddle, what is it?
H: [gives the name of some family member meeting this description] If the hearer fails to guess the answer, they must pretend to grant a city to the speaker, through the following formula: