It is related to the motif of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
The tale was collected in Northern New Mexico by José Manuel Espinosa in the 1930s from a twelve-year-old informant named María del Carmen González, who lived in San Ildefonso.
[1] It was later republished by Joe Hayes in 1998 with the title El pájaro que contaba verdades ("The Bird that spoke the Truth").
[6] In a tale collected in 1966, in Los Angeles, with the title El pájaro que habla, three kings take shelter during a storm in the house where three princesses live.
Years later, the three children seek the bird that talks, a tree that yields fruit, and the water of a thousand colours.
[7] In New Mexican variant collected from informant Guadalupe Gallegos, from West Las Vegas, New Mexico, titled The Bird of Truth, or The Three Treasures, a father warns his three daughters to avoid gossiping, because the king might hear them.
One day, a nun visits their palace and tells them about three missing treasures: the golden water, the talking bird, and the singing tree.
On her deathbed, the old woman tells the children, named José, María and Jesús, about a mountain located in the city of Trina, where three treasures are found: the bird that talks, the tree that sings and the water of life.
An evil witch visits their new palace and convinces them to seek the parrot that speaks and the fountain of the water of life.
[12] In the second variant, titled El Pájaro que Habla, the king marries a beautiful, but poor woman, to the court's disgust.
[13] In the third variant, Las Tres Hermanas y el Rey, a king rides in his carriage with two footsmen and his son, the prince, when heavy rain starts to pour.
[16] Scholar Manuel José Andrade published 4 variants he grouped under the banner The treacherous substitution of dogs for new-born children.
In El niño del lucero de la frente, three sisterly princesses promise grand things for the king: the elder that she will weave a little handkerchief of silver, the middle one that she will weave a little handkerchief of gold, and the youngest that she will bear the king a boy with a star on the forehead, golden hair and eyes of crystal.
Delgadina's three sons are given to a peasant, and years later they seek a bird that talks, the tree that sings and the golden water.
After the king sees the animals, he orders the queen to be buried up to the neck under the dinner table, where she is to feed only on food crumbles.
Years later, a witch visits the siblings and tells them about the tree of all flowers, the bird of all harmonies and the springwell of all (water) sources.
The two elder brothers, the sun and the Eastern star, fail in the quest, and their sister, the moon, gets the bird, the tree and the springwell, thanks to an old man's guidance.
[21] According to professor Fernando Peñalosa, type 707 is known in Mayan sources as 707, Los tres hijos dorados or The Three Golden Sons, with two texts collected.
[22][23] Folklorist and researcher Berta Elena Vidal de Battini collected eight variants all over Argentina, throughout the years, and published them as part of an extensive compilation of Argentinian folk-tales.
[25] Scholar Bertha Koessler-Ilg collected and published from the Mapuche of Argentina an etiological tale she titled Dónde y cómo tuvieron origen los colibries (English: "How and why the hummingbirds were created"),[26] with several similarities with the tale-type.
[27] In this story, the inca (lord) marries Painemilla ("Oro azul" or "blue gold"), who gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, both with golden hair.
[30] This last tale is unique in that the queen gives birth to female twins: the eponymous girl and her golden-haired sister, and its second part has similarities with Biancabella and the Snake.
Chilean folklorist Ramón Laval [es] collected another variant from a twenty-year-old youth from Rancagua, titled El Loro Adivino ("The Divining Parrot").
As usual, only the youngest sister is successful in the quest and rescues her brothers, as well as restores a prince to his human shape and heals a blind king.
In the third tale (that begins like Cinderella), a gentleman wishes to be father to twins with the sun and the moon on the front, and Maria Ceniza (the Cinderella-like character) promises to give birth to them.
On their adoptive father's deathbed, the minister tells the siblings to quest for the singing tree, the talking bird and the golden water to ensure their happiness.
[35] In an Ecuadorian variant, Del Irás y Nunca Volverás ("[The Place] of Going and Not Returning"), three sisters express their wishes to marry the baker, the royal cook and the king himself.
Years later, the king visits their house and a servant tells them of three wonders to embellish their garden: the singing tree, the golden water and the speaking bird.
[39] In a Latin American tale, The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree and the Fountain of Gold, a king likes to hunt in the forest, and reaches a hut in a village.
After the farmers die, the three siblings hear about a mountain where they can find a talking bird, a singing tree and a fountain of gold.