This story was originally published in translation in Inea Bushnaq's 1986 collection Arab Folktales.
[3] The night before the wedding, the princess asked the minister's daughter why so much talk filled the palace.
The princess bribed her with her golden bangle, so the minister's daughter told her that the bridegroom was her father.
The slave girl called upon her queen to show her the great pile of leather outside of her palace.
[5] In his 1987 guide to folktales, folklorist D. L. Ashliman classified the tale, according to the international Aarne-Thompson Index, as type AaTh 510B, "A King Tries To Marry His Daughter",[6] thus related to French tale Donkeyskin, by Charles Perrault, and other variants, such as Allerleirauh, Cap O' Rushes, Mossycoat, The Bear, The She-Bear and The King who Wished to Marry his Daughter.
[8] In a Sudanese tale collected by Ahmed Al-Shahi and F. C. T. Moore with the title Dawm-Palm Dress, from Nuri, a couple have a son and a daughter.
Dawm-Palm Dress goes again to the dance, and, when she leaves, the sultan's son grabs hold of her hand and takes one of her finger rings.
Some women prepare some food for the Sultan's son journey, and Dawm-Palm Dress kneads dough and places another of her rings inside it.
Deducing her identity, he goes back home and plays a game of draughts (translated as mangala by the collectors) with her, the loser takes off their clothes.
At the end of the tale, Dawm-Palm Dress's parents appear at the Sultan's door as beggars; she takes them in and forgives them.
[9] In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, both scholars listed a similar narrative under Turkish type TTV 189, Tülüce ("The Hairy One"), which corresponds, in the international classification, to tale type AaTh 510B.
The girl flees from her father wearing an animal's skin, and finds work as a kitchen maid in another kingdom.
[11] In a Syrian tale collected by Uwe Kuhr with the title Filzchen ("Little Felt"), a widowed man has a young daughter.
She abhors the idea, and the man consults with a qadi for a legal opinion, by asking a riddle about a tree in his garden.
Tricked by the riddle, the qadi answers that the tree belongs to him, so the man feels encouraged to pursue his daughter.
The girl runs to a feltmaker in the town and commissions a heavy felt dress that covers her whole body, save for the eyes.
On one occasion, the city is abuzz due to a local wedding to which the king and the court are invited.
On the fourth day, the prince stays home, so he spies on Sackcloth changing clothes, going to the wedding, then coming back to the palace.
[13] According to scholar A. K. Ramanujan, tale type ATU 510B, "The Dress of Gold, of Silver, of Stars", is reported across India, with variants in Bengali, Hindi, Gondi and Tamil.
The old woman, then, advises her daughter to fashion a mask to hide her face and hair, and to leave their home to escape her brother's lust.
The girl goes to another city and is called Hanchi, from hancha ('clay tile'), and finds work with a saukar, a rich man, as a maidservant.
One day, the saukar prepares a meal in his orchard and invites everyone, save for Hanchi herself and one of his youngest sons.
The youngest son's newfound love annoys his parents, who wish to marry him to any other bride, not the "lowborn servant".
Seeing her beauty and graceful countenance, the saukar and his wife agree to marry their son to Hanchi.