[7] Ulrich Marzolph and Richard van Leewen comment that the motif of the clever maiden who answers the prince's riddles is ancient enough to be present in the Mahabharata and in narratives of the Jatakas.

[8] The story of a poor maiden's cleverness can be found in Norse mythology and Viking legend of Aslaug and Ragnar Lodbrok, specially the riddle of coming "not dressed, yet not undressed".

[9] Scholars Johannes Bolte and Jiří Polívka listed several variants from across the globe in their seminal work on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale collection.

[15] A Scottish variant titled Diarmaid and Grainne was collected by Joseph Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands.

[18] A Russian variant ("The Sage Damsel") subverts the traditional ending: the wise and humble maiden helps a peasant simpleton with a good heart, and chooses him over the king.

[20] French author Edouard Laboulaye translated a Croatian variant titled A Female Solomon in his book Last Fairy Tales.

[22] Folklorist Jonas Balys (lt), in his 1936 publication on Lithuanian folktales, reported 41 variants of tale type Gudri ūkininko duktė.

[25] Ulrich Marzolph and Richard van Leewven list The Chick-pea Seller's Daughter, from The Arabian Nights, as a variant of the story.

[29] The motif of a girl's cleverness used to rebuff the advances of an unwanted magical suitor happens in traditional English and Scottish Child Ballads nr.

[30] There are variants in which it is a male that defies the king with his cleverness,[31] such as a tale from Saint Martin, collected by anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons.