A pasha's son one day was playing with his golden ball, and broke a woman's pitcher three times.
The prince set out with an old steward, and after three old men gave them directions and warnings, he finally found the mountain where the princess sat behind seven veils and never spoke.
One learned how to travel a year's journey in an hour; another to see things at a distance; the third to cure any illness.
The nightingale told of a woman who had scorned suitors for many years, until she found a white hair and decided to pick one.
The third night, the nightingale hid in the curtains by the door, and told the prince of a carpenter, a tailor, and a student who lived in the same house.
The nightingale and prince quarreled over whether the carpenter or the tailor had the best right to marry her, until the princess said that the student's prayer meant he should win her.
Of the four stories which are interwoven to form The Silent Princess, the oldest narrative is "The Magic Pomegranate (Four Skilful Brothers)".
The earliest versions can be found in "Baital Pachisi" in Vetalapanavimsatika No 5, No 2, in Somadeva's The Ocean of the Rivers of Story (Kathasaritsagara) 12th Book, first published in 1077, and in "The Three Princes and the Princess Nouronnihar" from One Thousand and One Nights.